A year on from her incredibly successful debut collaboration with Carrie Elizabeth Jewellery, former Made in Chelsea star-turned-influencer and best-selling author Louise Thompson has reunited with the affordable jewellery brand to release a second collection. Aptly titled ‘Chapters’, it honours the moments, milestones and memories that shape us, through talismanic and heirloom-inspired pieces, designed to join the wearer through all of life’s triumphs and challenges.
It’s hard to miss Louise’s own story of resilience and self-discovery encompassed within the designs. “I have been through a lot, and I do feel as though there is quite a lot of hidden messaging behind the pieces,” she shares in an exclusive interview with Cosmopolitan UK, on the day of the collection’s release.
After experiencing numerous health complications in the span of a few short years – including the traumatic birth of her son Leo, now three, in 2021, a PTSD and lupus diagnosis, plus an emergency colectomy surgery to remove her colon and fit a stoma bag last year as a result of her ulcerative colitis that she was first diagnosed with in 2018 – it would be easy to admit defeat. But Louise has done quite the opposite.
“It was this real serendipitous pairing that weirdly happened to align just at the right time, and [the perfect] example of good things being able to come off the back of something really horrendous,” Louise, a self-confessed magpie, says of how the partnership with Carrie Elizabeth first came about.
A year on, good timing seems to be on Louise’s side again, with the second collection appropriately marking a new, hopefully more positive chapter. “I'm at a place now where I’ve grieved a lot of the losses that I've experienced and I’ve healed. I feel like I'm entering this new era of prosperity and it feels very exciting. This conversation shows how far I've come.”
Shop Louise Thompson x Carrie Elizabeth
Naturally, many of the pieces reflect this mindset. The Sunlight and Guiding Star pendants are indicative of her resilience, while the Protection Shield speaks of her strength. The meaning behind the Lucky Four Leaf Clover charm goes without saying, and it’s a word Louise uses repeatedly throughout our chat to describe herself, even titling her book ‘Lucky’. “At some stage, we're all going to go through something hard and in a way, I think I'm quite lucky to have gone through something hard quite early on, because I'll have a much more enriched life understanding what it's like to go through that.”
Despite crediting Carrie Bradshaw as her ultimate ‘life icon’, Louise looked closer to home, to her friends and family, for inspiration for the second collection. As well as designing the Statement Cocktail Ring with her mum in mind, she looked to incorporate cherished pieces she’d received as gifts from her family.
“I've got my signet ring that my dad gave to me when I was not very well, a year and a half after I'd had my son,” she says of the Chapters signet rings with custom monogramming option. “A lot of my family members wear a signet ring – we've got a [family] crest – and it felt like a special moment going to Hatton Garden and getting it made together. My brother [Sam Thompson] got one as well - it’s a bit of a rite of passage.”
The collection also introduces three watch designs, a Carrie Elizabeth first. “I really wanted to include a watch because I haven't worn a watch since I lost mine when I was about 20. I got a watch for my 18th birthday and it ended up lost, which is bad because it was actually a Cartier watch, which is pretty f***ing horrendous. I don't think I've ever got over the guilt.”
Available in gold and silver, with either a labradorite or white agate small square face on a delicate bracelet strap, the timepieces aren’t dissimilar to a classic Cartier design. “Cartier obviously makes beautiful watches. I didn't directly think about that, but it's a nice thing for people to be able to tap into that fine jewellery luxury market, but at a price that means they could perhaps put it on their Christmas list.”
The collection is incredibly current and trend-led, from the Scent Bottle Necklace and gold and silver chains that lean into the long necklace look, to the charms designed to be built up and layered together. And yet, it also feels classic and timeless, with an undeniable vintage feel. “I would actually love to see Kate Moss in some of this,” Louise admits. “I can really picture the Vintage Heart Pendant on her.”
It’s only over the past few years, with age, that Louise feels she’s transitioned into a more conscious mindset when it comes to her shopping habits. This mentality was at the forefront of the design process, with the pieces intended to act as talismans that could be worn forever and become heirlooms. “I've only got one child and he's amazing – Leo. God knows whether he will be wearing jewellery or not, but maybe one day he'll have a [partner] and he can pass the bits that I've accumulated down to [them]. That's such a special thing.”
As with all Carrie Elizabeth collections, gemstones – a design signature of the brand – feature heavily throughout, in charms, rings and earrings. The Manifestation Pendant allows the wearer to swap out different stones depending on their mood, but it’s only since going through her birth trauma that Louise has truly sat and thought about the power behind intention.
She recounts writing incredibly detailed and specific messages to herself while pregnant that she later realised foreshadowed some of the things she’d go through. “I would hate to think that I'd brought that on myself, so I am not going to carry guilt over that, but if you spend a lot of time and attention on certain things, then you’re likely to beckon them into your life in some way, shape or form. Now, I think that anything is possible. I believe that if I say to myself, ‘I'm going to make this thing happen,’ I could. I think I could make most things happen.”
Top of her list? Alongside continuing to advocate for “living a really normal and even aspirational life” while having a stoma bag, she’s also got plans to take on parliament and make positive changes around birth trauma policies. “The old Louise would have been petrified of that way of thinking, and even having a conversation with a politician would have been very scary for me,” she says. “Now, I really believe it's something that I'm going to do in my lifetime. These opportunities just keep coming my way. There are a lot of signs, and I feel excited by those signs.”
Shop Louise Thompson x Carrie Elizabeth
Alexandria Dale is the Digital Fashion Writer at Cosmopolitan UK. Covering everything from the celebrity style moments worth knowing about to the latest fashion news, there’s nothing she loves more than finding a high street dupe of a must-have designer item. As well as discovering new brands, she’s passionate about sustainable fashion and establishing the trends that are actually worth investing in. Having worked in fashion journalism for six years, she has experience at both digital and print publications including Glamour and Ok!
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