GEMZ — Kiala Kanzi

Akan trade beads carry information before a designer touches them. Some can be worn only by priests and priestesses; others announce rank and occupation, which is why people in Ghana say the beads talk. Kiala Kanzi researched them, sat with an artisan named Santiago to learn every step of the recycled-glass process, and built GEMZ from there: handmade glass flowers in red, green, white and black, made to be worn in braids. Born in Germany to German, Cameroonian and Syrian parents, she moved from Berlin to Accra two years ago and says her output rose as the pressure fell. She frames the collection as a question rather than a drop: what seeds are we planting, and where.