About Us
(græ-dæns) As talismans of expression, Graedance’s demi-fine jewelry is consciously designed with consideration of changes in the wearer’s body and mood, allowing for jewelry that evolves with the wearer.
Birthed through the reconstruction of the colour gray/grey: often cited as too weak to be considered masculine and too menacing to be considered feminine, neither warm nor cold, neither material nor spiritual. The core colour was chosen to symbolise the liminal ethos of the brand and to celebrate the tension it invites.
An ode to the undefined — Graedance invites the discovery of each individual’s ‘in-between’ and grey area, the expansive in-between across our cultural blueprint’s binary ‘blacks’ and ‘whites.’ Created to celebrate the gradients we take up as individuals, Graedance reflects a world where identity is fluid and belonging is self-defined.
Operating out of Australia, the pieces are handcrafted from a blend of new and old-world practices, made with recycled metals and earth-conscious processes.
The Designer
Founded by Rong Jake Chen — a queer Chinese-Australian designer — Graedance is shaped by lived experience at the intersection of cultures and identities. Formerly at AMXANDER, Rong Jake has received nominations from the prestigious International Woolmark Prize and the National Designer Award for his previous design work. His approach to Graedance is a natural extension of this lineage.
“Having explored the reinvention of uniforms from prior cultures and occupations at AMXANDER — understanding that these garments reflected homogeneity and conformity — I want to now explore the sociology behind each wearer, providing a reconstructed reflection that in fact we are individual and completely distinct, regardless of our jobs, our background or culture.”
Rong Jake’s design philosophy centers on versatility — pieces restructured to be worn in expansive ways and forms — and dabbles in the cross-section of the real and surreal, the simple and the extravagant. This perspective is deeply informed by his experience as a QPOC creative, harmonising with Graedance’s ethos of fluidity and inclusion.
Every design decision, from product form to packaging, carries this intention: to create modern talismans that hold space for self-expression while maintaining an earth-conscious approach.
