Vice Versa

Vice Versa

Sophie Thoerner, a Savannah College of Art and Design jewelry graduate, and Hannah Traulsen, a Barnard alum with a background in sourcing and production, founded Vice Versa in New York in August 2020. The label is built around modular gold pieces that reconfigure, most notably the puzzle-like Versa ring made in 14 karat gold with or without diamonds, fabricated with artisans in New York and Los Angeles.

Jewelry

Thoerner designs, Traulsen sources and produces, and that division of labor is what let Vice Versa launch with pieces engineered as carefully as they are styled. The jewelry here keeps returning to the brand's core trick, components that separate and recombine, so a single piece can read three or four different ways depending on how it is worn.

More Jewelry

The label favors 14 karat over 18 karat gold, partly for the color and partly for durability, a practical choice from two people who came up doing the unglamorous production side of the industry before designing for themselves. This part of the edit leans into that same practicality, pieces meant to be worn daily rather than saved for one night.

Our honest take

Modular jewelry is a gimmick in a lot of hands, but Vice Versa earns it because the engineering behind the Versa ring was the actual founding idea, not a marketing afterthought bolted onto a normal ring. The collection is more convincing when it leans into that puzzle-piece logic than when it drifts toward more conventional gold jewelry.