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Meet the Designer: Wen-Ting Chen, Founder of Sekundär

Meet the Designer

With the beginning of the new year we've also added an entirely new category and brand new designer label to the online shop - the delicate real flower jewellery from Sekundär. This blog post will introduce the person behind this beautiful and sustainable jewellery label: Wen-Ting Chen from Taiwan.

Sekundär was founded in 2018 in Berlin, Germany. The founder, Wen-Ting Chen, is originally from Taipei in Taiwan, which naturally also has a very strong influence on her work. Her previous work focused on paying respect to products, nature, and was also very much inspired by cultural differences. After studying a BA Fashion Design course in Taiwan and following up with a MA course in sustainable fashion in Berlin, she worked for several German fashion companies, such as Steinrohner and Micheal Michalsky. With the creation of her label Sekundär, Wen-Ting has now fully devoted herself to fashion and sustainability. Sekundär aims to spread uniqueness and peace, to celebrate cultural differences and aesthetics. It wants to inspire cultural interactions between the East and the West by combining art, fashion, and environment. 

Sekundär“ is a philosophy, a way of life that means ‘second place’ in German. The idea behind the label comes from the ancient philosophy of Daoism, which is against the Human-Centered Theory. Daoists believe in animism, meaning that everything has a spirit. Spirits exist not only in humans, but also in animals, plants, mountains, and rivers. It believes that all things are closely linked and exist equally, however great or small; meaning to stand behind all things on earth and put the others in the ‘first’. Through this philosophy, Sekundär clearly sets itself apart from fashion’s modern value system:

"We do not view ourselves as number one; we do not chase standard beauty, we are different, we are ourselves."

So how exactly is Wen-Ting turning real flowers and plants into delicate jewellery? First of all, she handpicks every single plant from Taiwan and Japan, careful to only choose the highest quality specimens. After the drying and curing process - which can take anywhere between some days and several months - resin is applied layer by layer to preserve the flower in a perfect state of ‘bloom’.

Compared to normal resin jewellery found on the market, Sekundär only uses the highest quality resin available, which is also imported from Japan. With this resin, each flower’s delicate texture is preserved and maintained, and the pieces will look as fresh as the day they were carefully selected and gathered.

In addition to handpicked floral items, Sekundär uses freshwater pearls for some of the pieces, and much like the flowers, each individual pearl also brings a new shape. Sekundär celebrates and appreciates their natural condition in order to represent the beauty of individuality. The pearls are kept in their purest form without the need for synthetic chemical processing.

In the era of mechanical mass production, Sekundär appreciates the spirit of artisans and their ability to awaken a material’s soul while inspiring our inner listener. Sekundär wants to enhance the emotional relationship between products and consumers through the art of storytelling. Each product has a story to tell about its origin, how it was made and what it is made of. In addition, Sekundär also represents conscious consumerism; a chance to step away from the toxic mentality of over-consumption. Sekundär offers much more than fashion items - it offers a different lifestyle. A lifestyle of conscious consumerism, appreciation, and attention to detail.

"We believe every natural material is born perfectly; just like all people, perfectly imperfect."

  
 

A curated selection of jewellery from Sekundär can be found here.


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