IN HONOUR OF HER | Andie Towner

  1. In honour of her

    A conversation with Andie Towner

    Founder of The Bridal Journey

  1. In this special Mother’s Day edition of In Conversation, we speak with Andie Towner, founder of The Bridal Journey. For Andie, influences are woven through memory.  From small acts of care that created a sense of abundance, to the values that continue to guide how she lives, works and now raises her own children.

    In this conversation, Andie reflects on her mother, the lessons she carries with her, how those influences continue to live on in the way she moves through the world and the way she now holds those closest to her.

  1. “Becoming a mother didn't just change how I see her. It made me want to be more like her.”

  1. Has becoming a mother changed the way you understand your own ?

    Completely. The first thing it did was make me realise what an absolute handful I was as a teenager and how much went unnoticed and unappreciated on my part. When you're on the other side of it, you see everything differently.

    All the things she does quietly, without acknowledgement, without anyone asking if she's okay, it all becomes so clear. Becoming a mother didn't just change how I see her. It made me want to be more like her.

  2. Is there a value or belief you carry today that you know came from your mum?

    Kindness. And doing the right thing when no one is watching. She has a strong moral compass and she lives by it quietly. I think about that a lot, especially now that I'm building something and raising two kids at the same time. She also pushed independence hard.

    Go to uni, build a career, stand on your own two feet. She trusted me with a lot of freedom early. Now I understand exactly what she was building in me.

  1. When you think about your mother, what is the first small memory that comes to mind?

    My parents divorced when I was young, and money was tight. I came home one day to find she had completely transformed my bedroom. Hanging beads on the door, dragonflies from the ceiling, a new bedspread, a lamp and new toys. This was the 90s, when lava lamps and inflatable couches were big. My own little fairytale wonderland. I still don't know how she did it. That's always been her; we didn't have much, but I never once felt without.

    She also used to buy me a magazine as a treat. Vogue. Harper's Bazaar. One at a time, as a special treat. I would sit and read every single page. I saved them all in a huge tub in the garage. I genuinely believe that's where it all started for me, the love of media, of editorial, of storytelling. One magazine, one treat, and somehow it became everything.

  2. Explore the mother's day collection

    Do you have a piece of jewellery, object or tradition that carries your mum’s story?

    Jewellery in my family was never decorative. It was a statement of who you were. My great-grandfather was a jeweller and that set the standard for every woman who came after him. My grandmother had an absolute infinity for diamonds and rings. She wore hats and matching suits, and was always covered in them. She had a rule, unspoken but very clearly understood: you did not walk into a room wearing fashion jewellery. Not on her watch. She would have looked down on me from wherever she is if I ever did.

    When she passed, everything came to my mother, and my mother has passed it all on to me. I have all of her jewellery, all of her rings. I often wear my great-grandmother's engagement ring on my hand. 

    There is something about inheriting jewellery from the women in your family that feels different to anything you could ever buy for yourself. It carries their taste, their standards, their whole idea of how a woman should carry herself. I feel that every time I wear one of her pieces. Like I am being held to something.

    Explore the mother's day collection