India’s Homegrown Jewellery Brand That Shuns The Ideals Of Sexual Identity

Gender identity is not about your physical body, it’s when someone identifies themselves as either male or female. It can also be seen as someone seeing themselves as both male and female or neither gender, which is also known as ‘genderqueer’.

The idea of gender identity is closely related to the role a particular gender ‘plays’ according to society. For example, many of us grew up thinking that it was a woman’s role to cook dinner for her family while the man provides the food. As fashion and beauty cultivate an air of gender neutrality, Indian jewellery brand Eurumme collaborates with the industry's extraordinary talents to envision inclusivity through sustainable jewellery.

While gender bender and sustainable fashion campaigns do the rounds, designers are often caught balancing a double-edged sword — on one end they’re criticised for displaying blandness for industry acceptance, labelling their work as boring and outdated, and on the other hand, they’re condemned for alienating a huge audience that strays away from the traditional system of dual genders.

With the rise of gender-fluid fashion and beauty, the industry is looking beyond stereotypical marketing, packaging and even products. Young consumers, specifically millennials are increasingly embracing brands that are gender-neutral. With this progressive approach in mind, a young millennial jewellery label - Eurumme seeks inspiration from environmental consciousness and sustainability and can easily transform to showcase the spirit of gender inclusivity.

With a substantial shift from rigidity to acceptance of androgynous fashion in the local market, Eishita Puri, Creative Director, Eurumme, innovates androgynous jewellery by tweaking the trend and launching gender-inclusive jewellery.  Breaking all social norms, the designer takes a giant leap, as she initiates gold-plated, sustainable jewellery that can be adorned with panache by all genders alike.

Handcrafted by fellow artisans and made using locally sourced materials, this assortment of jewels is created keeping in mind — progression in modern times. 

"Gender Fluidity has been a long time coming and I’m glad it’s been given the importance it deserves. People should be able to make their own fashion choices, there can’t be a limit to this. Being inclusive is imperative and gives people the freedom to express themselves better. In fact, androgynous styling is one of my favourites,” shares Shreeja Rajgopal, Celebrity Stylist.

Likewise, as per Mohit Rai, Creative Director and Fashion Consultant, "Gender fluidity is something that we grow up within the Indian culture and if you look at Hindu mythology, in particular, you see so many examples- while the Pandavas were in exile, Arjun dressed up as a woman to hide his identity and played the part of a woman for a very long time; Hindu mythology also teaches us about Shiv and Shakti —they’re one energy and one identity. On the streets, we come across eunuchs or kinnars on a daily basis known to possess otherworldly powers. To me gender fluidity is not just an expression or a subject of inclusivity, it’s a lifestyle that we all are part of. One day we feel more masculine and the next day more feminine. We just have to embrace the best of both and put it to good use.”

According to Pranay Jaitly and Shounak Amonkar, Creative Directors and Fashion Consultants: Who Wore What When "Only you know who you are born to be and you need to be free as a person and accept yourself. Gender isn’t something that should stop you from working towards your goals, love, and acceptance. Gender doesn’t define love, talent, or intelligence.”

Today, Eurumme’s jewellery is a reflection of many people’s personal beliefs regarding gender inclusivity. Their undaunted confidence is worthy of applause as they do not shy away from the conventions of society, instead believe in voicing their opinions with candid creativity. History has witnessed that the fashion industry has been constantly accused of ignoring and devaluing the marginalised. Of late, we’ve seen tremendous developments, especially those related to gender fluidity, for example, cheering androgynous and transgender models, promoting gender-neutral fashion weeks, campaigns, concepts and a lot more. But as they say and it is true too — “The best is yet to come…”