Everyday keepsakes: The best friends bringing sentimentality back to jewellery

From daisy chains to beaded creations, for most of us, our first childhood exposure to jewellery was with – and for – our closest friends. While romantic bonds tend to supersede the sentiment of jewellery at a certain point, new Stockholm-based brand ANI is taking us back to that nostalgic place where it all began.

It was a pair of matching bracelets, symbolising friendship and sisterhood, that prompted Bianca Ingrosso and Lovisa Worge to kickstart ANI. “I gave a bracelet as a birthday gift to Bianca two years ago,” Lovisa recounts. “One for her and an identical bracelet for myself. This gift made us think more about the beauty of jewellery and how much it can symbolise.”

The pair’s friendship stretches back beyond this sweet gesture to six years ago, when Lovisa applied for a job that Bianca – an established Youtube personality, entrepreneur and founder of CAIA Cosmetics – had announced on her blog. Lovisa got the job, and a firm friendship was quickly formed.

In Lovisa’s words, it’s really a one-of-a-kind bond. “Bianca is my person and I am hers. If Bianca is happy, I’m happy. If her heart is broken, my heart hurts too. We can trust each other in every single way. We are more than best friends - we are family,” she muses. "We have so many beautiful memories together and we create new ones constantly," Bianca chimes in. "We are extremely sensitive to each other's energies, even when we are not together."

Given the shared business-minded background of the pair, it’s no wonder that ideas quickly sparked from their strong connection. “Bianca and I always wanted to create something together, we work well together,” Lovisa muses. Fast forward to May of this year and they’ve made it happen - making the step from best friends to the co-founders of ANI.

Explaining how the brand came to be conceived, it’s clear that it was always going to be jewellery. “I love to use jewellery to enhance a look, or create expression,” says Lovisa. “Bianca has always been inspired by how I style jewellery and let me style her jewellery for outfits – it has been ‘our thing’.”

The more that Lovisa and Bianca share about ANI, the more it becomes apparent that there is sentimental value in every detail, even down to the brand’s name which derives from the first name ‘Annie’. “I’ve always loved the name Annie,” shares Bianca, “and the name means a lot to me since Annie was my mum’s first role in Annie Get Your Gun,” she continues, referencing a breakout theatrical role performed by her mother, renowned Swedish singer and actor Pernilla Wahlgreen, in the early 90s.

Browse through the brand’s collection of handmade, high-quality necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings and you’ll find flashes of gleaming signature green – another sentimental detail. “ANI launched on the fifth of May, and the birthstone of May is this emerald green colour. We also chose it because it is a positive, energetic, calming and harmonious colour,” says Bianca.

While everything is bound to be more fun with your best friend by your side, they admit that running the brand comes with its fair share of challenges. “We don’t accept mediocre quality and we have had the nerve to change factories when they don’t achieve the vision that we have. We are not satisfied until we think that we have achieved perfection,” Bianca says.

When it comes to the idea of perfection, the pair have certainly perfected the balance of quality and accessibility, for those seeking out timeless and high-quality pieces but without a hefty price tag. Describing it as filling a gap in the market, Lovisa says: "We solely design jewellery that feels luxurious but still wearable everyday. You should get that feeling that you never want to take it off.”

Despite their strong bond and commonalities, the best friends still have their own distinct taste when it comes to their favourite pieces from the ANI collection. Bianca's go-to earrings are ANI’s Chunky Hoops – “I love the combination between the structure of the front and the polished inside” – while Lovisa’s choice is the Stone Cuff, which indulges her love of delicate, stackable pieces with lots of stones – “I love to wear multiple and combine with our tennis bracelets”.

In just two months, Bianca and Lovisa’s designs have garnered a following of brand fans across the world, but their sights remain fixed on the Nordic region for now. “There is so much more for us to do in Scandinavia,” says Lovisa. “We have big goals here,” she continues “to broaden the range and create world class products and purchase experiences.”

And with a friendship as solid as theirs behind it, we’re sure that ANI is one to watch.