Adore Adorn jewelry designer Sasha Flynn can’t remember a time when jewelry wasn’t a part of her life. “When I was 10 years old, my aunt used to have me untangling her jewels and her jewelry,” Flynn tells GRAZIA. “And I would do that just so she would give me one of her pieces of jewelry.” She would go on to spend time working for her mother’s jewelry line and then, in 2016, began to ideate on her own. The following year, Flynn officially launched her direct-to-consumer jewelry e-commerce business. When her business saw a surge, thanks in part to the Black Lives Matter movement and the push to financially support Black businesses post-George Floyd, she said she’d been, in a way, preparing for that very moment.
“I wanted my company to be rooted in something,” she said. Back in 2017, she created 10 mantras to live by, — she quickly rattled off a few: ‘know your history,’ ‘don’t be afraid of your own power,’ ‘dream beautiful,’ ‘live in this world creatively,’ — that helped her manifest when she was starting her company. “I know it sounds a little ‘woo-woo’ but that’s just my creative process.” Now Flynn stocks pieces with some of those very same mantras. Business skyrocketed over the summer, increasing 300% but Flynn said the influx of customers matched the flow of what she was already offering: pieces that champion Black empowerment and women. She likes to work with gemstones and crystals for their healing properties because they come from the earth, calling it an incredibly grounding experience. For Flynn, connecting with the crystals when she’s designing is a reminder to dig deeper to understand what we’re wearing and why.
Flynn’s aunt passed away when the designer was a teenager and it was a devastating blow. She designed her very first collection and dedicated it to her aunt in memory of playing in her jewelry box. One of Adore Adorn’s best selling pieces is Flynn’s Lilly ring. It was one of the first pieces she designed, named after her grandmother, Lilian. “She used to wear this ring, that was a gold, wide, thick band and it had a red garnet in the middle. And even though I sell 50 different colors, that’s the one that always sells out constantly for the last four years. As for what Flynn wears constantly, she calls her Reava pendant and her ‘know your history’ bracelet, her version of a power suit.
“Crystals are the beginning of my design journey,” Flynn said. “To think that these crystals have these natural healing benefits that we don’t have to do anything to activate. They just radiate this energy.” Because the jeweler wasn’t always as tapped in with the holistic healing methods crystals offer, she stocks what she calls heart movement kits, a metaphysical toolkit to help one operate between mind and matter. Each kit contains powerful natural gemstone jewelry with motivational mantras, energy crystals, and manifestation rituals written to unlock healing properties for your heart and soul. “It’s actually really perfect for beginners because it walks you through, step by step, with everything you need to feel that connection,” Flynn said. But she wants to be clear that it isn’t enough just to buy the kit. “It’s a process,” she explained. “I make sure when I’m communicating this, I let people know you won’t just touch the crystal or jewelry once and immediately reap the benefits. No, it’s not like that.” The kits work best when paired with journaling, meditating or speaking affirmations to yourself in the mirror. You know, because faith without works is dead — which goes back to the reason Flynn created Adore Adorn in the first place.
