Yvonne Orji, Georgia Medley Toast Mejuri’s New Collection With a Cozy Pub Luncheon
LONDON — Jewelry brand Mejuri brought some much-needed sunshine to rainy London with a luncheon to celebrate the brand’s new Charlotte collection.
Celebrity stylist Georgia Medley and Jessica Clarke, founder of plant-based supplement brand Mother Made, hosted the afternoon at The Pelican, a cozy West London pub serving steak tartare, boiled cabbage, roasted chicken, spinach pie and lemon cake with cream.
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Nigerian-American actress, producer and comedian Yvonne Orji, make-up artist Bernicia Boateng and chef Imogen Kwok were in attendance.
The gloomy weather, jewelry preferences and 2024 Wimbledon Championships were talk of the table among guests.
“I have such a passion for jewelry, I wear a lot of rings. I always have a stack of earrings in my ears and I mix a lot of gold-plated and silver-plated jewelry, as well as white gold with yellow gold jewelry,” said Medley, who styles Orji for professional outings.
The collaboration is an easy one for the two women. “We actually have a conversation and build on ideas. We assess the runways, trends and what we love. Yvonne loves an androgynous look with a bit of tailoring,” the stylist added.
Orji’s European summer has been planned around the Wimbledon Championships.
“My father got me into tennis and I hated it because we’re Nigerian immigrants and during the summer, he would put on Wimbledon all day when I wanted to watch cartoons, but when I went off to high school, I started playing tennis and it became mine and my father’s thing,” she said, confessing that she’s a dedicated tennis fan.
She now plays religiously, and compares the sport to being a comedian. “If you’re having a bad night, you can either turn the crowd, or you can succumb and try again tomorrow — you’re out there by yourself,” she said.
On her busy run around Europe, Orji has taken a leaf out of costume designer Shiona Turini’s book, who she used to work with on the HBO series “Insecure.”
“She always told me to travel with a color scheme, so that way you can mix and match, [allowing] to bring a minimum amount of shoes,” said Orji, who was wearing a cashmere two-piece set from Quince layered with a Frankie Shop jacket and Steve Madden heels.
In between catching tennis games, Orji is developing Yaa Gyasi’s novel “Transcendent Kingdom” for Sony Pictures Television.
The book caught her attention during the pandemic. “I’ve been chasing this book for the last four years and it’s such an essential piece of work, especially as a child of immigrants because you have a dual identity,” she added.
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