An industrial hard rock band and a bout of heartbreak are the unlikely inspirations behind Hannah Martin’s newly unveiled jewellery collection. “I had just broken up with this guy and I went to a Nine Inch Nails concert. I wasn’t going to go, but a friend said, ‘You have to come, it’ll be the best thing for you.’ He picked me up on his motorbike and not long after I was deep in the moshpit of this Nine Inch Nails show – who are my favourite band anyway – and it was almost like a transcendental moment. All the feelings… that human connection of being in that space with all those people, hot and sweaty and loud. That one moment, that’s what I wanted to talk about,” recalls Martin. This “moment” evolved into the Perfect Drug, Martin’s 10th collection, 26 exquisite pieces akin to sculptures that cleverly interact with the human body.
Famed for her signature mohawk and her perpetually black punk-rock wardrobe, Martin, a Central Saint Martins alumni (she studied jewellery design), cut her teeth at legacy brands such as Cartier and worked with Chaumet, Louis Vuitton and Francesca Amfitheatrof. In 2006, she established her eponymous brand. Over close to two decades, music quickly became a leitmotif in Martin’s work. She has previously collaborated with Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman; Patti Smith has been a supporter and muse, and FKA twigs, Rhianna, Self Esteem and St Vincent have all been known to wear her left of centre statement pieces rooted in a subversive core – think rings cast from yellow gold that are then blackened and set with spiky rubies and sapphires, or shackle-like bangles with chunky bolts and screws.
It is, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, an aesthetic that has also gained traction in Los Angeles, where Martin now spends a lot of her time. “When people think about LA they automatically think of Hollywood, but LA is so much more than that. There is so much happening there creatively. Also,” she says, offering a possible reason for her popularity, “a lot of my clients are in music and they are all recording in LA. But generally people are just doing really cool things there, and it has a real buzz and energy.” Martin also cites her rock and roll aesthetic as a benefit. “People always stop me in the streets and are like, ‘Oh my God, I just love your hair!’ So, yeah, LA has been really good to me.” Hence her genderless line HMp (Hannah Martin Pierced), which she launched in 2023, features earrings, studs and barbells that can be put to conch, helix, nipple or belly button at studios in both LA and London.
For her new collection, Martin cast her eye – and mind – far and wide. She looked at photographs taken by Surrealist artist Man Ray, and at Constantin Brâncuși’s sculptures. The queer erotic art made by Tom of Finland and Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography gave shape to jewellery that has a harness-like closeness to body and skin. Vivienne Westwood’s work during the punk years also inspired the use of everyday fittings, such as bolts, hinges and studs. Yellow gold and silver pieces in a soft liquid-like chainmail, metal that feels like fabric on the skin, come attached to solid metal balls. Amalgamating the deft engineering of the chainmail with such heavy pieces was not, says Martin, without its challenges (“We literally scaled the globe to find someone to help!”), but it was also a long held dream come true. “Since I was at Saint Martins I’ve always been obsessed with the way boxers wrap their fingers. I wanted a piece of jewellery that would have the same effect. And since styling it and wearing it I’ve realised that, like pearls, when you put them against your skin, it takes the heat off. It’s so sensual. It’s jewellery I’ve been looking for all my life.”
The Perfect Drug is all about jewellery that we want to interact with. It’s jewellery that elicits feelings and memories of Martin’s experience amidst the crowd at Brixton Academy on that fateful night. “I would love to get a piece on Trent Reznor,” she says. “That vision I had of him on stage at that show was so strong in my head. I can totally imagine him wearing one of the long chainmail necklaces.” At the launch event for the Perfect Drug, held aptly at Chateau Denmark, a punk rock inspired townhouse on one of the most famous streets in British music history, her beam is evidence that her original inspiration is no longer her state of mind. “When I first started it it was kind of like a heartbreak collection, [but then] every time that I do a collection, it’s deeply personal,” says Martin pondering her recent body of work. “I feel like this one is almost a coming of age collection. It’s the most honest I have been.”
Hannah Martin's The Perfect Drug is out now. HMp Studios London is open for piercing appointments on 31 October