FLEET

In an era all but defined by æstheticism and consumerism, standing out as a new designer can be near-impossible. “Causesumerism”—products that you feel good about buying because proceeds are donated to a cause—is an increasingly popular route. Skeptics may criticize a company’s alliance with a foundation as simply a marketing tool, but whatever the motive, millions of people—whether through Lauren Bush’s FEED project or TOMS’ “One for One” mission—benefit from the sale of these goods. And what’s wrong with that?

Kate Power, founder and designer of New York-based jewelry line FLEET4HEARME, is a proponent of morally-motivated production. “It’s like I’m doing something trendy by doing something good. I think more people are having to stop in their tracks, the same as I did, and ask themselves, Why am I doing what I’m doing?” Power designs locally-manufactured pieces that she hopes will empower the wearer as well as the children who benefit from her sales: Proceeds will build recording studios in orphanages worldwide through a partnership with the organization Hear Me, which connects children across the world with one another through Hear Me Hubs, premade, self-sustaining music studios made from shipping containers that enable children to team up online to create music together.

“I think there’s a new value structure happening around profitability,” says Power. “Being profitable is not based on finances, it’s based on the profit of the world of what we’re doing, inclusive of your energy levels every day and passion.”

Power, a fiercely independent, inspired, self-taught jewelry designer from Canada, started a nonprofit in her twenties to help aspiring artists achieve their goals. While her intentions were commendable, she was ultimately unqualified, as she had never experienced that journey herself. Years after a teenage stint in Mexico, where she began to dabble in metals and design, she realized jewelry was a perfect medium for her creative impulses. She launched FLEET in Los Angeles in 2010, but at the moment when the company really began to gain traction, Power came to a grinding halt. She left Los Angeles and returned to Canada.

“I needed to have a look at where my values were in the context of everything I wanted to do,” she recalls. “I went back to Canada and got in the bath for like six months.” Power was disillusioned by the concept of producing jewelry overseas—often the most cost-effective option—and decided to move her line to New York and produce as much there as possible. Her upbringing explains her focus on domestic assembly: As a child, she visited manufacturing plants with her industrial designer father, where she witnessed firsthand the “the relationship [and] conversation happening through materials and creativity.”

While many a business mind would cringe at Power’s reclusive stall at this crucial juncture, her six-month soak proved not only therapeutic, but also essential. “It’s easy as an entrepreneur and as an artist to get caught up in the routine of what you’re doing and never really take the time to ask yourself the question of why,” she says.

Power reconnected to her personal why—and in doing so, realized the necessity of connecting a consumer to her designs. In 2011, she learned about Hear Me. An eighth-grade dropout who was living on her own at age twelve, Power understood “what it’s like to have to find your own voice and tribe again. [Music] was the most honest language of unity.” She relaunched her line as FLEET4HEARME, with half of her wholesale proceeds going to the organization.

Now, Power teams up with musicians to design thoughtful, music-inspired jewelry, the first of which is the PENdant, a dangling pen necklace reminiscent of a bullet. Power conceived this piece with friend and lead singer of Metric, Emily Haines, whom she met at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival in Canada.

The design of the PENdant pays homage to both Haines’ and Power’s fathers’ roles in their creative realizations. Power learned her appreciation for the artful process of industrial design from hers. A wearable pen—convenient for scribbling impromptu ideas on napkin scraps—nods to Haines’ father, the poet Paul Haines. Lyrics from “Dreams So Real” (one of Metric’s latest songs, as well as words from a poem by Haines’ father) are inscribed on the side of the pen: “believe in the power of songs.”

Pen by FLEET4HEARME. Makeup by Junko at Joe Management. Model: Christian Brylle at Ford Models.

Emma Greenberg is a freelance culture writer based in New York. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English and creative writing.

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