Retro Cool Maile Leaf

Young girls love to sift through their mother's jewelry box of treasures. One of my favorite pieces of my mother's that evokes a lot of nostalgia growing up on Oahu in the 70's, was a gold maile leaf pendant. At the time, the gold maile leaf was an iconic motif and almost everyone on the Islands owned one in the late seventies. With all the recent explosion of nature-inspired jewelry out there, it seemed appropriate to ask my Mom if I could have this coveted little trinket that's been hiding in storage for over 20 years. Now I'm wearing this beautiful, timeless pendant daily and feel I'm already ahead of the curve at no cost to me! I actually found some of these gold maile leaf pendants from the 70's for sale at next to nothing at gypsywomancaravan.com. But if you're unable to snag an original second-hand one then you can fork out the big bucks for one by a current designer. Jennifer Meyer, studio-head's daughter and soon-to-be-wife of actor Tobey Maguire, creates nature-inspired jewelry that has been seen on the likes of Jennifer Aniston (a similar gold leaf pendant was worn by Jen in The Break Up) and Kate Hudson. Jennifer Meyer's pricey, yet coveted pendants can be found at Barney's New York and Kaviar & Kind. The Rachel Leigh jewelry line also offers cool, gold leaf pendants at more affordable prices and can be found online at fengjunk.com and revolveclothing.com. As a designer, my love of nature has always inspired me, so I'm happy to see that the 'maile' gold leaf motif from the 70's is making a comeback!