Mateo Adds Another Gem
Internationally acclaimed jewellery designer Matthew ‘Mateo’ Harris has another reason to flash those gorgeous pearly whites these days. Fact is, he’s the black jewellery designer of choice — and a Jamaican to boot — at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. “I’m super honoured,” he shared with SO by phone from Paris, France, where he is scheduling private appointments.
He’s not the only one who’s excited by the news! Ashley Davis, in an article in The National Jeweler, speaks to the fact that Mateo has found a home at the New African American Museum…
“ Museum gift shops are fertile retail ground for independent designers, but there is an extra layer of meaning associated with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.”
The barely two-week-old museum —it opened on Saturday, September 24, is the first in the United States that is exclusively centred on African-American culture. “This national museum helps to tell a richer and fuller story of who we are,”
CNN reported President Obama at the museum’s opening ceremony.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment for the brand at this momentous and historical opening”, Matthew ‘Mateo’ Harris, our TSO bestie who, along with noted Caribbean designer Meiling Esau, will address students at the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts on Wednesday, October 5, continued, “It’s almost impossible to dream this… to be included in such a historic and monumental museum is remarkable.”
It’s no idle boast! Harris, who visits his family in St James regularly, was proud to share in the interview that his seamstress mother is the person who exposed him to design, and that he takes inspiration from Jamaica and New York “when designing his graphic architectural collections”.
The jeweller, according to the
National Jeweler, “attributes his eye for colour solely to his birth country. “My Jamaican heritage and upbringing influence my work greatly.” He told the magazine, “The Jamaican flag consists of the colours gold, green and black. In my creations, I tend to sneak this colour scheme in, using yellow gold, black onyx and malachite. It pays a subtle homage to Jamaica.”
This opportunity afforded to him, he hopes, will encourarge more African-Americans to get into jewellery design. “African-Americans are not widely represented in jewellery design. I believe it’s not a design or creative field we are necessarily exposed to. I wish in the future this would change.”
(Photos courtesy of Mateo New York)