VIRAGO STEEL VALUES:
… making edgy, rebellious alt-style pieces that make the wearer feel confident, strong & badass. Going against the grain, not following outdated jewellery rules. Just totally unleashing my creativity. Alt style is so much about creating fashion from unconventional items and re-imagining items already in existence.
… if you love it, it’s for you, no rules. I will NEVER create gender-specific products. My brand and products are heavily queer-coded and if you have a problem with that, I DO NOT WANT YOUR MONEY.
… making raw, human, hand-made pieces & being hands-on, real & genuine. SO important in the world right now. I do not write, make, edit or design ANYTHING with AI. My partner and I built this website and I do all the product designs, photography and graphic design myself.
… all sizes / custom sizing to fit every body. Comfortable & accommodating pieces for sensory sensitivities. I wholeheartedly believe every person with any body should have the freedom to wear what they want. That is why I make jewellery in every size imaginable!
.. always prioritising thrifted / repurposed components wherever possible, with a huge focus on upcycling & slow fashion. I will never purchase a handbag or cutlery brand new to create with and will always be on the look out for items I can thrift and transform into something magical.
… keeping prices as affordable as possible. Only increasing if I absolutely have to if it is not sustainable. Having a wide variety of price points available to fit every budget.
… built to last wherever possible, some upcycled bags have (and will) wear & tear over time but I will do everything in my power to make long-lasting pieces. Stainless steel is tougher than nails, one of the many reasons I love it. I would NEVER sell something that I knew would fall apart in 5 seconds (unlike Temu, eww).
… there is no limit to what I can make, I’m constantly flooded with new ideas, fast fashion thieves couldn’t catch me if they tried. Creating with secondhand goods means the options and inspiration are limitless.
… celebrating the flaws in a vintage piece of cutlery or bag & embracing the character it adds, rather than psychotically trying to make everything perfect (something I am guilty of doing at times, I’m trying to be less neurotic!).
… accommodating custom orders, resizing or altering pieces, communicating with you and genuinely connecting with you as people. It is so important to me to NOT be like the big greedy corporates who really don’t give a shit about you!
The Long Story…
My journey began early 2025 while I was off work with an injury & bored as hell. I came across a video of someone making a ring from a spoon & I was like damn, this is a thing?? I always found it so tricky to find rings to fit my chubbbb fingers and thought it was a no brainer to try & make my own.
I am OBSESSED with op-shopping/thrifting & went out immediately to hunt down some stainless steel cutlery (while hobbling on crutches). Little did I know at this point how f**king cool the vintage designs could be, but how DIFFICULT bending stainless steel (S/S) was.
I was determined to use S/S because I already wore it almost exclusively. I am a super lazy jewellery wearer, I like stuff I never have to take off and materials that don’t irritate my sensitive skin. You would be surprised at the sheer volume of stainless steel cutlery that sits in op shops.
Trust me when I tell you the beginning was rough. I started in my tiny garage with a small hobby vice, a rubber mallet, and a couple of long sockets. There was a LOT of frustration, tears, cuts & bruises I honestly almost gave up more than once. S/S is a super super hard metal and once you’ve bent it one too many times, it refuses to budge!
Usually my ADHD brain would convince me to give it up forever & add it to the grave with my many other failed hobbies. But this time I could not get the nagging feeling out of my head to keep trying. Thank god that voice didn’t shut the fuck up.
I banged up quite a few rings at the beginning that were wonky as hell but I still loved them & still have them! I considered making more rings and selling them but I just didn’t have the method, or tools, or finances to buy an industrial ring bender (the cheaper ones are still crazy expensive and break almost instantly after bending S/S).
Fast forward a month or two, I did endless research into tools & machines or contraptions that I could use. I discovered the hydraulic shop press, of which I knew nothing about or how to use it, but I thought it could work as like a vertical ring bender, if I got the right pieces to sit at the bottom and bend onto. I found one on sale at Supercheap for $169 and grabbed it almost immediately without much further thought.
I was considering using a vice at the bottom still, but was uncertain it would withstand the pole pressure. So I researched some more and discovered the V block…. GAME CHANGER.
There was still a ton of trial and error from this point on but the shop press was the catalyst for the trajectory I went next, it is so precious to me!
I was bending rings long before Virago Steel itself came into existence & just had a few friends wearing pieces to test them out. I didn’t plan to start attending markets at all or to even start a business until I started drilling pendants. I thought, okayyyy NOW here is some potential, I couldn’t imagine going to a market with just a table of rings! Not long after this I started making the half-cuff bracelets. I started with cuffs but felt the chain is a lot more secure.
It was around June/July that I began designing Virago Steel, even choosing the name took ages but I am still in love with it. I designed the logo myself & took some product photographs (again, thank you to all my various ADHD hobbies which gave me a whole lot of random skills).
I attended my first ever market, Rolleston Market in August. I added jean chains to the line up at the last minute & they’re now one of my FAVE things. I ended up getting super ill the night before which resulted in being SO late in the morning (plz learn from my mistakes & do NOT paint metal banner grommets with nail polish in an unventilated space). We had about 15-20 minutes to fully set up, it was absolute carnage.
At the beginning of 2026 I added the resurrected bags to my product pool. I always dreamed of creating items that were one of one, one of a kind, no other design like it. The bags are a game changer for me and I LOVE LOVE LOVE making them, it really gets my creative juices flowing. I love creating custom pieces too. I feel like we are severely lacking alternative fashion brands in Aotearoa New Zealand, ESPECIALLY ones that are anti-fast fashion and use existing/secondhand or handmade components. This is my way of bringing alternative fashion to NZ, and honestly there is no limit to what I can do, who knows what I may add to the line up!
I never expected to get here but I’m so glad I did. I am still constantly blown away & speechless at the incredible feedback and love you guys have for my stuff. I never expected Virago to be as popular as it has become & I am still pinching myself daily, I absolutely love everything I make but I wasn’t super sure who else would due to my often crippling self-doubt!
I am privileged to be in this position where I can sell stuff I love to people I adore & admire, and in a way which is so me & encompasses my values – listed above. I can run a business how I believe it should be – values before profit. Not to become a billionaire, just enough to enjoy my life and help bring joy to others.
This is why I try my best to keep prices affordable and accessible, only charging what I need to, without exploitation, manipulation tactics, or increasing prices just because I can. If I ever need to increase prices, it is because I don’t have a choice, I need to make sure I don’t burn out so I can keep doing this for life! Thank you for choosing to shop locally, small and eco-consciously.
If you made it to the end, thank you so much for being here & learning about my story, I tried to keep it brief I promise! I am beyond grateful for all my magical customers that make this all SO worth it.
Now more than ever I feel we need to focus on real people, real human connections and community. Thank you for choosing to shop locally, small and eco-consciously.
