Why we Love Platonic Jewels
The insect jewelry style and their beautiful Canary Islands retail location.
Platonic is a jewelry store in Puerto de la Cruz, Canary Islands in Spain. It was started by jewelry designer, Jamila El Mahi. Jamila is a certified expert in diamond identification and classification, and has managed jewelry businesses across Europe, Asia and Africa. She decided to go out on her own and start her own luxury jewelry store and brand. We at Shop Phone love her designs, her location and that she’s Direct to Consumer.
Insect Jewelry
Insect jewelry is one of these new things I never knew existed up until about a year ago. I’m seeing them more and more now and I can’t seem to put my finger on why I love them so much. So when I came across Platonic Jewels as a customer of our app, I knew I had to learn more about them.
Why am I so drawn to insect jewelry? I’m a male, and am not in the market for jewelry. In a blog post, Jamila confirmed that her customers are most interested in her insect jewelry line. So why are we drawn to insect jewelry? Jamila thinks it’s because humans are naturally curious about insects, these tiny little creatures that seem hidden to us but are actually everywhere.
I think she hits it right on the head. As a kid growing up I would always try to explore and examine insects I caught, I was always curious about how these insects could do what they could do. There was so much detail on everything on these insects. The way the light would reflect off of a fly’s wings. The distinct curves on ants’ mandibles (jaws). The tiny hairs on the back of a caterpillar. Insects live in their own world and we get a peek into this curious world when we examine them.
I also believe I’m drawn to the colorful jewels Jamila is using. She uses high quality emeralds, rubies and diamonds, and real gold and silver to illuminate the parts of the insects. This really brings your eyes to each part of the insect, just as I did as a child looking at the beetle I caught in my glass jar.
And here are examples from ancient Egypt:
I was talking to my mother about why I might be drawn to insect jewelry and she reminded me that in ancient Egypt, the nobles would wear insect designed jewelry like these above. I can’t help but think this fascination with insect jewelry is timeless.
Their Location
Based in the Canary Islands on the island of Tenerife, a beautiful island paradise city south of Spain and off the western cost of Africa.
A simple Google image search of Puerto de la Cruz, the city where Platonic has its flagship store, shows you how beautiful this city is, the bustling tourism, summery days and vibrant nightlife.
Hand-crafted and DTC
What’s not to love about the idea of buying products directly from the entrepreneur and designer that created them? When customers buy from Platonic they are buying from the people who designed and created each piece in their own workshop.
We love this direct-to-consumer shift that’s taking place in retail. We build apps to help people trying to do this, because it’s tough. It’s tough to be the business owner that has to worry about product development, branding, marketing and store operations, while also growing an online store. So when we talk to entrepreneurs like Jamila is energizes us to keep building what we’re building.
You can visit the Platonic Jewels website here: www.platonicjewels.com
Platonic Jewels uses our Shop Phone app for Shopify to help them recover abandoned checkouts, and welcome new and VIP customers: Shop Phone Shopify App