Precious Pearls

A pearl is formed inside an oyster when it coats a foreign intruder, like a grain of sand, with mucus to protect itself from this trauma. It is from this process that a pearl is created. Such a poignant metaphor for how we humans deal with trauma. “You just grow around it,” Yasmin says.

The independent New York City based company is growing quickly, already having been sported by the likes of Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski. Still, Yasmin and Mary, the two best friends behind the magic, are humble and beyond funny. Their connection is strong and evident in their quick rapport and stunning designs.

Check out the iconic pics and our conversation below!

WILLA BECK—What is Mudd Pearl’s origin story?

MARY ANDERSON—Yasmin and I were in quarantine together and just started making pearl necklaces together as a hobby. We were bored and would do photoshoots with each other and post them on Instagram and whatnot. Our friends started to reach out and ask for custom orders, and it just kept happening. After a while, we were like, we should just make this a business. We weren’t ever, in the beginning, taking it super seriously. We launched on Depop and started an Instagram. Super low pressure in the beginning, which I think really helped us start a business without overwhelming ourselves. Because we both have separate jobs. We’re both already busy, and so now that it’s already grown so much, we’re just fully always stressed out. But it definitely grew organically.

YASMIN MOON—My most vivid memory about how Mudd Pearl started was when Mary and I had been making necklaces for each other and we were still on the fence about it. This is how the name came to be. Mary and I were riding a four wheeler around just for fun. Legally, non legally, I don’t know. No comment.

WB—Allegedly.

YM—Yes, we were allegedly riding a four wheeler around. One day, Mary took it out without me. I stayed home to take a bath. It was the first day I was like, I don’t want to do this.

MA—‘Cause we were riding the four wheeler a lot during Covid.

YM—I was the bitch on the back. It was a freeing time. I was watching her IG stories and she was covered in mud with our pearls on. Mary had gotten stuck in the mud, in quicksand pretty much, in an old lake. I was like, Do you need help? I’m worried about you. Are you okay? She was like, No, don’t worry about me, someone’s coming to get me. When she came back, I was like, Wow, mud pearl. And then we were like, Wait. That’s gonna be the name.

MA—I was stuck in the mud for probably six hours, and the people who we rented the four wheeler from had to come pick us up and bail us out of the mud. I was completely covered. Head to toe. You could not even see what I was wearing. I looked like a creature that crawled out of the swamp.

YM—Literally the only thing I could see on her were the pearls.

WB—Except for the pearls glistening.

YM—And it was the perfect balance too. We don’t necessarily view it as feminine. It’s more earthy, organic, and raw. Mudd Pearl is like a precious gem out of the dirt. Like us. ‘Cause we’re little routy four-wheeling dirt babies.

WB—What is your mission as a brand?

MA—Our mission is to make people feel sexy.

YM—I’ve always found jewelry really sacred, so I want to bestow the comfort I feel when I wear a piece that’s really precious to me onto someone else. All the pieces I make, I have that in mind for each person. Maybe they’ll be clutching their pearls when they’re having an intense moment. They can be part of ritual. Like a talisman.

YM—Yeah, a totem.

MA—We want to create pieces that people feel comforted by. It’s the final touch to any outfit that makes you feel confident and grounded. YM—Special.

WB—What are your biggest influences, stylistically or otherwise?

MA—We know what we like and what we’re inspired by, but it’s always changing. We’re definitely inspired by nostalgia and recreating classic looks from our childhood. Phases we went through, maybe as a teenager, but recreated in a sexy, sophisticated, grown way.

WB—What has the launch of your website been like? What has that meant to you as a brand?

MA—It’s definitely legitimized us. People are taking us more seriously. As simple as it looks, it took so much effort and time to perfect it. The smallest details of the website.

YM—Literally every detail, I worked with our friend Anthony Tran on. What works for Mary and I, what we would want in a website. Also just keeping it really simple felt good. The website has removed a lot of worry for me because I was always scared of things getting lost. I have bad ADD, so having everything in one compartment makes me feel good about the relationship with the customer, too.

MA—It has definitely streamlined our business and organized it. We feel like we’re a real business now! Because before we were selling directly to customers through Instagram and Depop. The past month has been crazy since launching the website. Everything feels more real.

YM—It’s also really fun. I love our website because it reminds me of Myspace; I wish we could add a song.

MA—You’re giving away our age.

WB—That would be so cool if it played a song when you opened it. That reminds me of Tumblr.

MA—We’re gonna have our Top 8 on our website soon.

YM—Top 8 feature very soon.

WB—What was it like starting a business during the pandemic?

MA—I think it was actually really beneficial for us because we had more time than we were used to. It allowed us to have more time to focus and ideate and not be distracted. When you’re running a business and trying to execute a vision, it’s really helpful to not compare yourself and look at what other people are doing. In lockdown, we were in our own isolation chamber of creativity. It helped to make it happen. I don’t think we would have launched Mudd Pearl if we weren’t in lockdown together.

YM—That’s true. Going off of isolation, it really helped us develop our craft, and become really strong at it. Without that forced moment, we probably wouldn’t have been able to do it because both of us lead such insane lives.

MA—Now that we’re not really in lockdown anymore, Yasmin and I are still in lockdown, ‘cause all we do is stay home and make pearl necklaces.

YM—No social life.

MA—We have no social life anymore. Which is fine, because it’s really great to have something to dedicate all of our energy to, that we watched grow every single day. It seems like every day, something exciting is happening for the brand. Whether it’s Bella Hadid posting on her Instagram with the Pearly Bruce design, or a new feature that someone wants to do on us. It’s always exciting. It’s a lot of work, and I kind of do miss having a social life. But the reward is worth a forever lockdown.

YM—We get to work on something new all the time.

WB—What is it like running a business with your best friend?

MA—Running a business together is one of the most stressful things you can do with somebody. I think it’s a really great test of a relationship to have all of these obstacles and work through them, and compromise and communicate. We face a lot more stress than regular relationships. It’s almost like a crash course in how to navigate a relationship in a healthy way. Because if we didn’t have that, the company would’ve already fallen apart.

YM—It’s so beautiful. I feel like I’ve been saying this before quarantine, before Mudd Pearl was even born, that I know that this time I’m spending with you, Mary, I’m about to learn so much.

MA—Aw.

YM—I keep growing in such an intense way, working with you. It’s not easy all the time, but nothing worth it ever is. Because it’s never toxic.

WB—What kind of inspirations do you use for photoshoots? What’s your creative process there?

YM—I engage with my intuition. Eventually, maybe I’ll have to find something outside of that, but right now, I’ll think really deeply about what makes me happy. What influences I had growing up that really stuck with me. Using that as a jumping off point. But collaborating with the other artists I’m working with. I’ll give them a skeleton of an idea and be like, Okay, so how are we going to build this into a body together?

MA—The first shoot we wanted to do minimal and clean, and in the style of the photographer. For this shoot, we went in a different direction.

YM—But it still has a very nostalgic vibe. The first one that we did, I kept thinking about this movie Constantine, that I was really into when I was younger. I’ve always had an obsession with crosses, rosaries, and fallen angels. Being in limbo. That’s very much how this past year felt. There was that. This one, the jumping off point was The Simple Life. Girls that were “cut off”. They have all these beautiful jewels, but are kind of just hanging out in a random house. And we’re just two besties having a lot of fun together. Mary’s the funniest person I’ve ever met.

MA—That’s wild that you say that because I don’t feel like it! We’ve been so stressed out lately, that I’m like, I can’t crack a joke!

YM—I’ve peed myself laughing at your jokes, like, I can’t count how many times.

WB—Tell me about the “cut off” girls.

YM—This time was definitely a collaboration between Mary and I of what we haven’t done in a shoot yet. Especially when it has to do with us, we discussed that most of our shoots have been really natural. Just us, last minute. We haven’t really gotten dressed up or done much where we’re, like, really exhausted after doing a shoot with another person. This time, it was an opportunity to pay homage to girly best friends. Do our makeup in the way we like to do it and go all out creatively in camp. Camp versions of ourselves. We pulled from the greats. Paris and Nicole from The Simple Life, Corinne Day, that movie Generation Wealth. A lot of that energy.

WB—Which one of you is Paris and which is Nicole?

MA—I feel like I’m Nicole. I’m a Nicole myself.

YM—I guess that makes me Paris. If the shoe fits. I know she wears size 11, so…

MA—I think our brand aesthetic has been really soft and gentle. Which is beautiful, and we love doing that, but it was fun to go maximalist with this shoot. A little sassier, a little more camp, like Yasmin was saying. The whole shoot, we are wearing Gauntlett Cheng only, which is really fun because you don’t have to steam any styles or have a stylist on set. All stretchy, fun fabric that photographs super beautifully.

YM—I loved wearing all Gauntlett Cheng, too, because it's Esther Gauntlett and Jenny Cheng, and they’re also a team of two women who’ve been through a lot of different professional arenas. I feel very inspired by their dynamic. It felt cool for Mary and I to work directly with another team of two strong women.

MA—Entrepreneurs who started from the ground up.

YM—They also helped me a lot in the beginning of my career. I did a few shows with them when they were doing runway. Some nice history there.

WB—Who was the photographer of this shoot? What’s the relationship there?

MA—The photographer of this shoot was a friend of Yasmin’s, Erica Snyder. She started working with only musicians and just recently started shooting fashion. She’s done a few editorial shoots with Yasmin, and she shot it all on film. She’s very talented. And her boyfriend, George Douglas Peterson, is the one who made the video!

WB—What was the collaboration like between you two and Erica? How did the vision translate?

YM—Erica is a really close friend. It’s super easy for me to work with her. We get each other and can be completely vulnerable with our communication. I’ll make a last minute change, and she’ll adjust… we’re very symbiotic when we work together, and we also have the same taste. We both come from backgrounds that are a little grungier, a little more punk, the way we grew up. We get each other.

WB—It sounds like it was a very powerfully female driven space. The photos look incredible, and that comes across.

YM—And look at the little dog, look at Tutti!

MA—The dog was the makeup artist’s dog. It worked out perfectly, because she added the final touch to the Paris Hilton motif.

YM—Yeah, Tutti was just an assistant, but we gave her a promotion as a model. We had such a fun time doing this shoot. We ran in the grass, let off some steam. We could just be in our bodies and have a great time. We got drinks afterwards and went on a walk with drinks in our hands in Jersey. It was a very Jersey moment.

WB—The photos are very Jersey in the best way.

YM—We went to this bar in our full makeup. Mary and I had so much fun during this shoot.

WB—Let’s chat about the debut of the Mudd Pearl bracelets.

YM—We’re really excited about the bracelets. They’re mini versions of some of our necklaces, so they’re kind of meant to be paired with the necklace, if possible. It looks really good together, and they’re so fun. You don’t really look at a necklace when you’re wearing it, unless you’re in the mirror or if it’s really long. But with the bracelets, I get to stare and admire some of the work we’ve done. I’ve been wearing them every single day.

WB—That’s a really good point; you get to enjoy a bracelet every time you look down. Do you think you’ll continue expanding to earrings and things like that?

MA—The bracelets are such a great addition to what we’re already offering. It’s fun to expand beyond necklaces.

YM—Yeah, we have some things in the works. Outside of earrings, we’re working on special clasps. I feel like we’re always coming up with new ideas all the time. Maybe a ring…

MA—We do whatever we want to do with the brand. Since it’s so small, we’re nimble, and we can just do what we want to do. Our main challenge at this point is having time to produce what sells. As we streamline our business, it gives us more time to ideate on the creative side with new fun products. Yasmin’s even texted me in the middle of the night and been like, Let’s start selling clothes! Merch for Mudd Pearl! Mudd Pearl will always be expanding, and we’ll always be adding new products to our repertoire.

WB—Awesome! I’m excited for what’s to come.

YM—I’m looking at the photos again. I’m obsessed.

WB—I love how a few of them are candid. Those ones are very Generation Wealth. They also remind me of that photo book Girl Culture by Lauren Greenfield.

MA—Yeah, a lot of them look like movie stills. We are starring in some The Simple Life documentary about two girls that got stranded in some small house in Jersey with all their extravagant jewelry. It was so fun. Yasmin and I have been working so hard behind the scenes, filling orders, wearing our sweat pants every day, running around the city. Handling what it takes to run a business. So being pampered for a day and shooting was a really fun experience. Seeing the photos come through is really rewarding.

WB—It’s also so cool that you guys can model your own designs. It’s very personal.

MA—We’re giving that much more when we’re modeling because it’s our brand. Of course, Yasmin’s a model by trade, and I’m not. When we do our shoots, she’s helped me and now I’m getting more comfortable. She’s teaching me how to smize.

YM—I don’t even know how to smize!

MA—You’re teaching me how to be comfortable in front of the camera, which I think really comes through when you’re not uncomfortable and trying so hard. And Erica was also really great at making us feel comfortable.

WB—What does a pearl signify to you?

MA—This is Yasmin’s favorite question.

YM—I guess, like, I’ve always really related to the oyster this way. I don’t even know how I found out how pearls were made. Some random fact that just got burrowed into my brain. A piece of sand gets placed into the oyster, and they literally call it a “trauma”. The oyster is sensitive, and it’s causing pain, so a way for the oyster to cope with this trauma that’s not going to go away, because it has no way of expelling the grain of sand, it will coat it in layers of mucus and creating a soft outer shell for the piece of sand. It becomes a pearl. For me, when you deal with loss, or any kind of significant pain as a human, it doesn’t really go away. You just grow around it. What a beautiful little correlation. We’re just cognizant oysters, really. When you think about it that way, it makes dealing with your trauma a little bit more simple. We make things so complicated as humans.

MA—See, she has the best answer.

YM—Mary’s like, Pearls are sexy! 

Watch the video, created and directed by George Douglas Peterson, below!