Green with Envy

It looks simple, yet overwhelmingly refined. It's called "The Marilyn," a smooth bracelet with soft, womanly curves reminiscent to Marilyn Monroe herself. From afar, the smooth surface looks as shiny and black as a scarab beetle, but upon closer examination, you'll see a highly polished wood-grain with beautifully rich striations of cocoas and bittersweet chocolate hues. The simple elegance of this A.D. SCHWARZ heirloom label carries more than enviable beauty, but also the deep, sometimes tragic stories of sun-parched seduction and tireless travails through tough terrain. It's a sleepless story that is laid witness every year by the tree rings of the Miombo Biome, a transitioning mosaic of rainforest and scorched savannahs. In fact, the scent of the Pau preto (African blackwood, Dalbergia melanoxylon) is retained on the bracelet, making the story of it's perilous journey that much more poignant for the wearer.

The Designer and Creative Director of the line, Allan Schwarz is the real-life Indiana Jones of architecture and design minus the hype of a Hollywood hero. Over the past ten months of speaking with this Master Etcher-meets-Ashoka fellow, he's battled 43oC days, poisonous spider bites, mosquitoes by the masses, a 7.5 earthquake, treacherous floods, and trained workers tragically befalling AIDS, all while creating a uniquely sophisticated product with a priceless story: "to break the cycle of poverty, the root of forest destruction," remarks Schwarz.

Allan, who was born in South Africa and later, taught a course entitled "Design with Nature" at The Centre for Advanced Visual Studies at Boston's M.I.T., left his position after witnessing the destruction of the forests in his native Africa, (the very resource base that was needed to sustain life throughout the area). For Lynne Cherry's muse, it was The Great Kapok Tree, for Allan, it was the peppery aroma of Kiaat trees that he so fondly remembered from when he was a young boy. "Poverty is at the root of forest destruction," reiterates Schwarz. "My dream is to break the economic necessity of such destruction by economically empowering the forest's inhabitants while building a culture of giving back what is taken or used from the forest and the landscape." A good case given that the African blackwood and other precious timbers used to make just one bracelet is the same price as four bags of charcoal.

Handcrafted from over 40 different indigenous hardwoods from the Mezimbite Forest Centre, all of the A.D. SCHWARZ line carries the "Carmibo Verde" or "Green Stamp" issued by FDS, a local Mozambique NGO. All finishes are natural oils made from indigenous vegetable oils and beeswax produced right on site by the coop participants in the region. Allan, who works diligently training his team, takes a detailed forest inventory and prepares management plans that balance timber harvesting with replanting. He shows that, by design, one can preserve the region and make a living without destroying what has made both the land and the people.

That is the message that gave birth to "The Marilyn" and other fine A.D. SCHWARZ designs. The bracelets, whose sophisticated, archetypal forms are often described as African Zen, are so elegantly engineered. The unique creations not only optimize the use of sustainably-harvested wood, but also bring the wearer a sensuous aesthetic of cultured craftsmanship and timeless elegance: a true and definitive look of passion and respect to make you green with envy.