It’s been quite a year for Sophie Buhai. Since launching her eponymous jewelry line in 2015, she has landed sought-after stores, established an ongoing collaboration with Lemaire, and practically single-handedly brought sterling silver back—not to mention giving birth to her first child, a daughter, two months ago. All of which would be enough to inspire most accessories designers to rest on their laurels for a season or two—yet Buhai’s playful, surrealist Spring 2017 collection, recently previewed at a private flat in Paris, feels unmistakably like a breakthrough. “I wanted to add more conversational pieces,” Buhai explains, citing the whimsically figurative work of artist duo Les Lalanne and sculptor-designer Diego Giacometti’s furniture collaboration with interior decorator Jean-Michel Frank as loose influences. The collection’s highlights do seem destined to provoke questions: working perfume flasks dangle from chains; paisley-shaped loops enclose orbs of lapis and tiger’s-eye to form rings, earrings, and collars; leather neck wraps she calls “chokers not for the millennials” bear dramatic silver tassels; one particularly clever brooch is cast in the shape of a derriere. All, despite their bravado, are designed to sit well with the permanent collection’s more understated pieces—as well as the classic new-mom uniform of T-shirts and jeans. Says Buhai of how pregnancy and motherhood have affected her creative process: “It makes you be more present and realistic about things. It’s important to me that the pieces are reality-based.” That same consideration informed the lookbook, for which Buhai opted to cast creative New York friends in their mid-to-late 30s (with the exception of Hailey Gates, whom Buhai calls “20s going on 60s”): editor Amy Sall, artists Erin Falls and Mirabelle Marden, multi-hyphenate Eliza Wexelman, and designer and retail force Maryam Nassir Zadeh. “It seemed like nothing in fashion was really showing women in that point in their life,” says Buhai, who is 35. “It’s where I am; it’s where my friends are at. Women are so beautiful at that age, and doing interesting things.” So, it goes without saying, is she.  

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