Sophie Buhai on 10 Years of Jewelry, Vena Cava, and Her One-of-Kind Show in Paris

For fashion lovers who set their The RealReal alerts for Vena Cava, it may seem conceptually hard to believe that the sleek, minimalist jewelry line Sophie Buhai is designed by one half of the duo behind the whimsical printed silk dresses that were practically the uniform of downtown New York cool girls in the preteens of the century. When I meet Buhai in Paris, where she’s preparing for the opening of Jewelry Objects—a special exhibition at Galerie Anne Sophie Duval marking her label’s 10th anniversary—the Los Angeles-based designer is dressed in head-to-toe black. Her Large Full Moon Pendant—a hand-carved onyx orb suspended from a long vegan leather cord—is peeking out from an inky vintage Christian Dior coat. “These are actually Vena Cava,” Buhai says, gesturing at her bootcut pants—one of the few solid-colored pieces from her first brand.

After graduating from Parsons School of Design in New York in 2003, Buhai co-founded Vena Cava with her classmate Lisa Mayock and the duo soon found critical and commercial success: the brand was a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund runner-up in 2008, a jewel in the Barney’s Co-op crown, and even launched a diffusion line, Viva Vena. But when financial difficulties led to Vena Cava’s closure in 2014, Buhai took a creative sabbatical—and discovered her new métier. “I went on a residency in Italy, and I brought a lot of materials with me and just naturally started making jewelry,” Buhai recalls. “I did Vena Cava in my twenties and it was young and fun and I had such a good time with it, but with jewelry I feel like I’ve really found my thing.”

Though the Sophie Buhai offering has since expanded to include 18k gold pieces, Buhai started by working exclusively with silver. “I’ve always loved modernist silver like my mother and grandmother wore, but I didn’t see a younger generation wearing it,” she says. She dreamed up her surrealist sterling silver egg pendants and hand-carved stone drop earrings that feel like Elsa Schiaparelli meets Elsa Perretti with a cool contemporary twist and sought out artisans in the Jewelry District of Downtown LA who could help her realize her vision. Without formal training in silversmithing or stone setting, Buhai considers herself a designer rather than a jeweler in the traditional sense. “Most jewelers are making things themselves with their hands, whereas I sketch,” she explains. “I then work with a wax carver in a kind of creative back and forth almost as if it’s a muslin.”

In addition to jewelry, Buhai also now does a big business in hair accessories. She began by making the appropriately named Elegant Scrunchie, sewn in silk with a sterling silver label. “It was something I wanted for myself, but it ended up just selling really well,” Buhai says. Since then, she’s managed to make the most inimitably chic version of every popular hair accessory, from sculptural leaf-shaped barrettes in sterling silver and thin tortoiseshell patterned headbands to claw clips with decorative closely-spaced grooves inspired by seashells. Though Buhai has dressed countless celebrities including Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Lopez, and Nicole Kidman, the only time she got starstruck was when Ruth Bader Ginsberg wore one of her scrunchies and puffy headbands. “She sent me a thank you note and I had it framed,” Buhai says.

Alongside gallery-like luxury fashion retailers Dover Street Market and 10 Corso Como, the Sophie Buhai line is also carried in the gift shops of the Cooper Hewitt and Museum of Art and Design in New York and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Sante Fe. But her Jewelry Objects show is the first time Buhai has sold her designs as decorative art objects. For the presentation, Buhai created 19 one-of-a-kind and limited-edition pieces, including an onyx, gold, and pearl seashell-shaped pocket mirror, a trio of bud vases covered in 40 coats of black urushi lacquer; a hammered flask sprouting carnelian and onyx cabochons; and sterling silver cases in the exact dimensions of a Bic lighter embellished with lapis, jade, or moonstone. “People love the lighter cases,” says Buhai. “I think they love these kind of naughty objects.” (Buhai, who is a non-smoker, stashes them around her home for lighting candles.)

At Galerie Anne Sophie Duval, Buhai’s creations sit in dialogue with emblematic Art Deco pieces such as nesting tables in red lacquer by Katsu Hamanaka and a Mithé Espelt gold and ceramic hand mirror. Buhai was excited to work with the gallery because of its place in the world of style. “Anne-Sophie Duval, the director Julie Bloom’s mother, was sort of this pioneering dealer of Art Deco and really brought it back into fashion in the seventies with Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent as early collectors,” Buhai explains. “Marc Jacobs has been a client too. The gallery has always had this kind of crossover with fashion and it’s exciting to celebrate that.”