Monies

Why it is renowned

Monies is known abroad for large, sculptural jewellery cut from natural materials rather than precious metal. The Australian art magazine Vault published an interview with creative director Karl Monies in November 2025, and wrote that the house has a following in fashion and art circles for its focus on the handmade and on natural materials.¹ The Museum of Arts and Design in New York presented the house in its MAD About Jewelry 2024 exhibition, describing bold designs that bring the colours, textures and shapes of bone, horn and stone together into wearable works.² It runs its own boutiques in Paris, in the Galerie de Valois of the Palais Royal, and in Milan, and its stockists include Dover Street Market in New York and Los Angeles along with shops across the United States, Canada and Europe.³ Vogue Scandinavia includes Monies in its A–Z of Nordic jewellery brands.⁴

The story

Gerda and Nikolai Monies founded the house in Copenhagen in 1973. Their son Karl Monies now leads it as creative director.⁵ The name is the family's own, said MON-YES.³

For more than fifty years the house has worked with horn, stone, shell, wood, fossils, pearls and minerals.⁵ Its materials range from bog oak, antler and ammonites to amber, baroque pearls, amethyst, labradorite and malachite.⁶ Each piece is made by hand. The one-of-a-kind pieces are made in the studio at Nordre Toldbod in Copenhagen, where repairs are also done, and each carries its own style number and a signed certificate.³ The house marked its fiftieth year in 2023.³

What to know it by

• One-of-a-kind jewellery³Single handmade pieces from natural materials, each with a signed certificate