
In a world full of fast fashion, family heirlooms inspire one to look beyond the next season and to the next century, redefining what “trendy” looks like. Occidental College students discuss what their family heirlooms mean to them, including how the items are a source of connection and memory.
Leila Anzalone

Leila Anzalone (senior) has many pieces of jewelry from her grandmother and great-grandmother. These items include strands of pearls, an emerald bracelet, a ring stop, gold earrings and a jade stone necklace with a pendant of the Royal Hawaiian Crest. Anzalone said wearing these heirlooms reminds her of home.
“[Wearing the jewelry] has to do with just being appreciative of [family members] and being reminded of them,” Anzalone said.
Anzalone said these jewelry items have much more than just material significance. According to Anzalone, since much of her jewelry is traditional Hawaiian jewelry, it connects her to her culture, as well as her family.


Anzalone said she remembers the first time she saw all of her grandmother’s jewelry and would go through her grandmother’s jewelry box growing up. Anzalone said this was a way for her to bond with her grandmother and that she has many positive memories of trying on the jewelry with her twin sister, Mia Anzalone*.
“All of [the jewelry pieces] carry some sort of memory in them, so when I wear them, I feel really proud,” Anzalone said.
According to Anzalone, a large part of her love for fashion comes from her grandmothers and that that most of her jewelry comes from her family.
“When it’s based on lineage, it has more of that significance because it carries a lot more history and meaning,” Anzalone said.
Genevieve Morel

Genevieve Morel (first year) has one of their grandparents’ class rings and a variety of jewelry gifted to them by their mother and grandmother. Morel said the jewelry’s backstory and family history give them a sense of pride when they wear them.
According to Morel, she is able to invent a new way of styling these pieces that carries on her mother and grandmother’s legacy while appreciating the jewelry in a new way.
“I think that giving it a new life is really important, especially because sometimes heirlooms get kind of forgotten or kept very locked away,” Morel said. “I feel like wearing them is very important.”

According to Morel, fashion has been a way for them to connect with their mother and bond. They said that starting from a young age, they have gone through their mother’s jewelry box while sitting in their mother’s art studio.
“I look at something that I have seen a million times, but I see it in a new way and I can appreciate it, and that is just me stepping into myself more and expanding my taste,” Morel said. “I think that I have used jewelry kind of as a timeless continuity through my fashion.”
Fashion, heirlooms, shopping and sharing clothes with her mother, Morel said, have been a source of healing for both of them. She said she has fostered a deep connection to fashion as a way of expressing herself, even if it does not align with the ‘beauty standard’ or what others are wearing.
“Showing [my mother] through the pieces she gives me… I can wear them outwardly and essentially be flashy and be super maximalist and loud,” Morel said. “[It] is demonstrating how I can take up space.”
Claire Wilson-Black

Claire Wilson-Black (sophomore) was gifted her grandmother’s class ring from when she graduated high school in 1954. She said she was gifted this ring by her grandfather after her grandmother passed away, because he wanted to give it to someone who would cherish it. According to Wilson-Black, this ring keeps the memory of her grandmother alive and allows her to carry a piece of her grandmother into her adult life.
“I feel like when I wear [the ring] I have a sense of pride, but also it’s a piece that is important for memory too, because it can be easy to feel like your memory of someone is fading,” Wilson-Black said. “You have a physical thing that encapsulates who they were, what they meant to you, or what you meant to them.”
Wilson-Black said being able to wear an heirloom has changed her perspective on fashion, making her more conscious of her own self-expression.
“Wearing an heirloom, I think it kind of directs and guides the way you think about fashion, because if fashion is about self-expression, it’s really cool to have a piece that incorporates your family into your self-expression,” Wilson-Black said.
Rebeca Garnica

Rebeca Garnica (first year) said she has multiple heirlooms from her family home in Guatemala, including pieces that used to belong to her mother and grandmother. She said she feels a sense of pride when she wears these pieces because they connect her to her country.
“Being able to wear something that represents the beauty of my country always makes me proud,” Garnica said.
Garnica said it is important to her that all the heirlooms were made in Guatemala and that they hold more significance since they are unique to her and her family.


“This jewelry is from before the time of mass consumerism and mass production, so I know that the [jewelry] I am wearing is one of a kind,” Garnica said.
Garnica said fashion has been a way for her to bond with her mother and two sisters. She said she hopes more people ask their family members about the stories behind their heirlooms because they represent family history.
“I want people to be more curious about their families because it is your identity,” Garnica said. “Your background is something that you can’t deny. It is inherently a part of yourself.”
Contact Eliza Bodden at bodden@oxy.edu
*Mia Anzalone works for The Occidental