Summer Camp Jewelry
Think back. You're around ten years old, sitting at a picnic table surrounded by your friends. Tiny hands digging through a menagerie of colorful craft supplies. Your unbridled creativity leads you to weave, paste and string a new collection of handmade treasures. Some match your friends' and others express a look all your own.
This is the American zeitgeist that inspires the Summer Camp jewelry trend.
Why Summer Camp?
Reeling from the stress and isolation of 2020, designers and consumers are eagerly searching for more positive styles. Summer Camp casts off the COVID-19 blues and unabashedly emphasizes sentimentality and a strong sense of community. Filled with nostalgia, mood-boosting colors and beginner-friendly appeal, this trend is made to make you smile.
Summer Camp puts the transformative power of creativity into anyone's hands. With roots in the '60s love-bead revolution and '70s fiber art craze, Summer Camp revives basic jewelry-making techniques and brings them to the surface of modern fashion. Summer Camp staples like friendship bracelets, macramé keychains, colorful beaded necklaces and other kitsch creations have skyrocketed to the forefront of pop culture, appearing everywhere, from small social media feeds to top design house runways.
Creating the Look
It's back to basics--there are no clean-cut, controlled lines here. Summer Camp rejects modern minimalism and instead celebrates vintage maximalism. It's all about more-is-more and expressing a youthful experimental feel. Don't be afraid to choose elements without a plan. Summer Camp is a safe space to play with classic summertime icons like food, smiley faces and whimsical charms.
Go beyond arts and crafts hour by experimenting with more complicated shapes, wacky patterns and vivid hues. Then add wood beads, glass, metal accents and more to beautifully complement nylon, hemp and cotton cords for a sophisticated yet fun-filled look.
To take your pieces from lake-day romp to runway-ready, swap some of the simpler materials for more elevated gemstones, fine metal or genuine leather cord. This keeps the Summer Camp spirit while catering to finer tastes.
Another popular path skips the design step altogether--kits! Perfectly in line with Summer Camp's DIY vibe, ready-to-create kits call back to the joy felt at the camp picnic table and offer materials and an artistic experience rather than a finished piece. Design custom kits using your creative expertise and our wide variety of pouches and packaging. Encourage your customers to grab one for themselves and one for friend for a post-pandemic craft session. Kits also make excellent party favors, gifts or easy inventory boosters.
Whatever you choose to create, remember to have fun!
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