Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.Photo: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA
On Monday,Meghan MarkleandPrince Harryattended a celebration of Nelson Mandela at the United Nations in New York City, where the Duke of Sussexdelivered a special address.
The Duchess of Sussex, 40, arrived at the event in a sleek black dress elegantly paired with two diamond rings — meaningful pieces of jewelry that she started wearing in April. The diamond-studded spiraled pinky rings are fromShiffon Co., a female-founded jewelry company that Meghan has been supporting since last year.
The new1972 Tennis Pinky Ringis part of the company’s new tennis collection, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Title IX, legislation that gave women the right to play sports in schools and colleges.
The significance of tennis extends even further as “tennis was one of the first sports to have equal pay and have equal pay for all of the grand slams,” founder Shilpa Yarlagadda told PEOPLE at Shiffon’s event withBreak the Love, a “tech company democratizing sports,” on Monday.
Meghan Markle.KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty
The origin of the unique pinky ring’s spiral design comes from when jewelry-loving Yarlagadda was looking for a ring but didn’t know her size. She also knew from the very beginning that she wanted her jewelry to have a deeper meaning.
“The first thing we created was this adjustable pinky ring that represented this pinky promise to pay it forward and support women,” she said.
New York City-based Yarlagadda started the fine jewelry company in 2017 in her Harvard dorm room with the mission to close the gender gap, particularly in entrepreneurship. The company’s name is a spin on chiffon fabric, which is dear to Yarlagadda and her mother, as well as a play on the words “shift is on,” referring to the company’s mission to “create the shift for women’s equality,” Yarlagadda told PEOPLE.
She has repeatedly noted the importance of female mentorship in her life and in Shiffon’s growth, so much so that she sought to incorporate it into her rings. “We really instilled [mentorship] in the ring because 50% of profits are funding seed grants for female founders for companies that empower women,” says Yarlagadda.
1972 Tennis Pinky Ring.Shiffon Co.
Fifty percent of the proceeds from the company’s first ring — theDuet Pinky Ring— are donated to support female entrepreneurs, and Shiffon’s newest ring will see 19.72% of the proceeds donated to their new Women in Sports Investment fund in honor of the legislation’s 50th anniversary. Through Shiffon’s non-profit venture capitalist arm, Startup Girl Foundation, Shiffon’s sales “fund more companies” and ensure that “one woman’s success leads to another success” Yarlagadda told PEOPLE.
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At Monday’s event,The Summer I Turned Prettystar Minnie Mills, who just received her first pinky ring, told PEOPLE: “I love supporting other Asian-owned brands, especially Asian female-owned.”
Mills added that “there is so much performative activism these days,” but Shiffon “is very intentional with their message and process.”
Minnie Mills and Shilpa Yarlagadda attend the Shiffon event held at Centrale NYC on July 18, 2022.Shoji Van Kuzumi
Attendees at the Shiffon event held at Centrale NYC on July 18, 2022.Shoji Van Kuzumi
Several women at the event were dressed in hand-tailored, one-of-a-kind Voto designs. Many of the women also sported hand fans in matching fabric to their dresses amid the heat.
In addition to styling Yarlaggada and some of her mentors, Voto says she will be fitting vintage boxes with recycled fabrics that “are already out in the world” for Shiffon’s pinky rings.
Yarlaggada told PEOPLE, “Every individual package people receive will be unique —because expressing individuality is so important, and our individuality is still being expressed for our products because every woman is doing something inspiring.”
source: people.com
