How I Designed A Carnival Inspired Jewlery Collection

April 24, 2026

There is a memory I carry with me every February.

My mother packing the picnic basket the night before. The careful way she arranged the food, covered everything, made sure nothing would spill. The morning we would wake up early, all of us, and make the journey from the East Coast into Georgetown. The city had a different energy on Mashramani day. You could feel it before you even saw it.

We had our spots. Sometimes the National Park, where we would find a place in the stands and watch the floats and the costume bands move through like something out of a dream. But what I preferred, what I always preferred, was the street.

Out on the street, we would lay our blankets on the side of the road, spread out our food and our drinks, and just be in it. The floats would pass close enough to feel the music in your chest. The bands would move through and you would move with them, whether you meant to or not. My mother, my family, all of us dancing. All of us home in it.

That is Mashramani. That is what carnival is for me, at its center, before the photographs and the costumes and everything else. It is a feeling of being exactly where you belong.

Carnival Has Many Names

I grew up calling it Mashramani - Mash, for short. Guyana celebrates it every year on February 23rd, Republic Day, and it is one of the most important days in our cultural calendar. But the rest of the Caribbean knows this same spirit by different names.

In Trinidad, it is Carnival. In Barbados, Crop Over. In Grenada, Spicemas. In St. Kitts, Sugar Mas. Each Caribbean nation has its own rhythm, its own history, its own way of bringing people into the streets together. But the heart of it is the same across all of them. It's a celebration of survival, of culture, of joy that was not supposed to exist but insisted on existing anyway.

That history matters. Caribbean carnival did not begin as a party. It began as an act of resistance, a reclamation. Enslaved people were excluded from the European masquerade balls held by colonizers, so they created their own celebrations which was louder, freer, more alive. What we celebrate today carries that legacy forward, whether we name it or not.

When I wear a piece that was inspired by carnival, I am wearing that history. I am wearing my mother and her picnic basket. I am wearing the blankets on the side of the road and the music that moved through me before I was old enough to understand why it felt so important.

Why We Created the Karnival Collection

Three years ago, I went home. I got to be in Mashramani again, not as a child watching from the blanket, but as a woman walking in it. And I remembered everything.

That trip is part of why the Karnival collection exists.

The pieces in this collection are not inspired by carnival in a surface-level way - a little color here, a little sparkle there. They are inspired by the feeling. The unapologetic joy. The way carnival asks you to be fully present in your body and your culture and your community all at once.

The Spirit of Mas Necklace. The Rhythm in Motion Hoops. These are not accessories. They are wearable memories. A way to carry that energy forward, not just in photographs or stories, but close to the skin, where it belongs.

Because carnival does not end when the road clears. It lives in the people who have ever felt it.

The Eternal Dancer Necklace

How to Wear Carnival Energy Year-Round

You do not have to wait for February or August or Crop Over season to wear pieces that carry this spirit. Carnival energy is not seasonal. It is a posture. A way of moving through the world that says: I know who I am, I know where I come from, and I am not diminishing either of those things for anyone.

Here is how I think about wearing the Karnival collection outside of festival season:

For everyday wear: The Rhythm in Motion Hoops in Azure or Forest are bold enough to be a statement but light enough to wear to work, to dinner, to anywhere you want to bring a little Caribbean soul into the room.

For a milestone moment: The Spirit of Mas Necklace was made for the moments that deserve to be marked. A promotion. A birthday. A graduation. Any day when you want to walk into a room already knowing you belong there.

As a gift: If someone you love has roots in the Caribbean — if they grew up going to Carnival or Crop Over or Mash, or if they grew up in the diaspora hearing their parents talk about it — a piece from the Karnival collection is not just jewelry. It is recognition. It is saying: I see where you come from, and I honor it.

The Rhythm Reveler Pin

A Note on What We Are Building

Every piece at Alliyette is rooted in something real. Not a trend. Not a moment. A story that has been passed down, carried across water, kept alive in kitchens and picnic baskets and blankets laid on the sides of roads.

If you are not sure which piece speaks to your story, our Heritage Concierge is here to help. Tell her a little about yourself - what you are celebrating, who you are shopping for, what you are looking for - and she will guide you to the right piece.

Because the right piece is not just the most beautiful one. It is the one that already knows you.