Wing's Social Responsability

"WWAKE is a connection to a world beyond your own. We strive to build the inherent value of our materials beyond their historic lore and beyond jewelry. Driven by our designer’s itinerant childhood and the friendships that she built around the world, we work to build an intimate connection to the people behind our materials. Our precious stones and metals are ethically sourced from Malawi, Colombia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, China, Colombia, Peru, and our home here in North America. As such, our jewelry is the connection between you, the earth, and every hand in between, and rethinks traditional structures on every level of the business.

LOCALLY MADE, HIGHEST QUALITY — our jewelry is transparently handcrafted in New York. We actively oversee how our jewelry is made, ensuring high quality, low-impact studio methods. Through the growth of long-term relationships, we give back to our local economy.

LOW-IMPACT PRACTICES — as a base practice, we design around low-impact materials as much as we possibly can. This means recycled diamonds and recycled gold, certified by SCS standards which ensure our supply chains meet international labor standards, and don’t include destructive environmental practices. We also source heritage gemstone rough (mined 17+ years ago), as well as antique diamonds, all of which minimize reliance on new mining. Where there are gaps in these options, we choose partners who have the best possible practices within the parameters of the jewelry industry. These include fair labor and pricing standards, as well as well-researched, transparent communication practices.

ORIGIN MATTERS, POSITIVE IMPACT — When sourcing new material, we’re most passionate about transparency around working conditions at the source, because this allows us to actively rethink age-old colonial systems that left the people at the source of materials most vulnerable. We buy from the few pioneers of fairtrade gemstones in the industry, and work directly with the miners to preserve the provenance of our jewelry and prioritize social development with the communities at the source. As such, we design collections around fairtrade, positive impact sources that help communities break out of poverty and flourish over time.

WHO WE ARE — WWAKE is proudly Asian woman-owned and run by a 92% women-identified team. Our in-house studio staffs 100% women-identified bench jewelers, bringing our unique perspective to every step of the process —how it’s made, designed, and then shared."