Since 1986 · Who we are
Miranda Konstantinidou
Founder and designer, the Queen of Colours — and the women who make her jewellery.
In 1986 the designer and entrepreneur Miranda Konstantinidou founded KONPLOTT. She broke with the traditional conventions of colour, form and material in jewellery design — rather than imitating fine jewellery, she created bold, original statements, meant to be worn every day and to shine on the grand stage.
01 / 08 ·Women in solidarity
A manufactory built by women
“My company shall be a women’s company!”
Miranda Konstantinidou, when she moved the heart of her jewellery production to Cebu.
In 1998 Josette invited Miranda to Cebu. The first ten women became a manufactory of our own — with female leadership from the start, and with the decision to be a Filipino company: it is run on the ground, not from Europe. Because there, as so often in the global South, it is the women who form the backbone not only of the family but of society.
“We are a women’s company: I am truly grateful to be able to work here in Cebu with such strong women. We have built a sense of solidarity based on respect, trust and confidence in one another.”
600+
women make the jewellery in our own manufactory on Cebu.
since 2000
it has been run by women. Secure jobs, fair wages, a respectful environment.
since 1986
Miranda Konstantinidou has designed every collection herself.
That was the company in place. Which leaves the question most brands skip: how is such a piece actually made?
02 / 08 ·Craft the old way
How a piece is made
No machine sets a stone. Four steps lie between a design by Miranda and the piece in your hand — photographed in our own manufactory on Cebu, with the same women whose names appear on every product page.
Soldering
The flame rests on a setting for seconds, and the joint is there. Ten discs lie beside it, waiting — each one handled on its own.
Setting and finishing
The step that makes a KONPLOTT piece: stone by stone with tweezers until the colour sits right. This is where a piece comes alive — or does not.
03 Colouring the stones
At KONPLOTT colour comes from the stone, not from a coating — here it is applied.
04 Assembling the blossoms
Single glass petals become a blossom. Six movements of the hand that nobody sees.
The four trades every piece passes through
Two of them can be seen in the pictures above. The other two cannot — and without them the chain would not be complete.
Soldering
Settings are made one by one. Every joint is placed by hand.
Plating
The metal takes on its tone. The waste water runs through our own filtration plant.
Setting and finishing
Stone by stone, set by hand — the step that makes a KONPLOTT piece.
Quality control
A colleague checks every piece before it leaves the manufactory.
See the manufactory on film
Six minutes from the manufactory: the benches, the trades, the women who work there. Filmed on Cebu, without a narrator — it is enough to watch.
Why a women’s company
- Women treat their work like their child.
- The family is the model for the organisation: benches and bench leaders.
- Warm and consistent at the same time.
- Good money for good work.
- To be creative I have to be soft and open.
Miranda Konstantinidou
Four steps, all by hand. The women who take them live from this work — and that looks different from what most people assume.
03 / 08 ·Standing together
9 in 10
of our staff on Cebu are women.
2 in 3
are the main earner in their family.
2 in 3
are mothers — single, married, widowed.
18 – 59
years, from our youngest to our longest-serving colleague.
In the Philippines a women’s company is a bigger step than it is here. The women who work with us bring in their family’s income, support their parents, are insured and independent. One colleague is a mother of seven, 44 years old and has been with KONPLOTT for thirteen years.
The fund that belongs to the women
A wage helps little if it is gone again at home the same day. So the manufactory has its own savings and loan fund: on every payday each colleague pays in an amount she decides herself. The fund lends at a very low interest rate, and interest and returns go back to the members at the end of the year.
Loans for what moves you forward
Education for their children or siblings, a better house, a larger purchase.
Emergency help when it is needed
Only for hospitalisation, natural disaster and bereavement — otherwise the fund stays untouched.
An account of her own
Wages into her own account instead of cash, and savings she alone decides about. For many that is the first step out of the role in which all the money is handed over at home.
What many people do not know about the Philippines
The idea of “manufacturing in Asia” often does not survive a look at the law. These things are required by law there — and are not in Germany or the USA:
- A 13th month’s pay — mandatory.
- Overtime premium — mandatory.
- A separation fee — mandatory.
- 105 days of maternity leave, fully paid.
- Around 21 paid public holidays a year.
And most people get the question wrong of which country lets you work at fifteen: Germany.
What that means in practice
Not as a statement of intent, but as what is actually in place at the manufactory:
A nurse on site
A trained nurse works at the production site.
Access to medicine
Through one of the largest local pharmacies — also for family members who fall ill.
Self-determined family planning
Information and access to contraception, in a country where that is not a given.
Personal coaching
A place to talk through questions at work and at home.
A canteen with proper food
Varied meals instead of the growing supply of fast food.
Yoga and Zumba
Exercise during the working day, voluntary and free.
A shuttle to work
Cheaper than local public transport.
Occupational safety
With someone permanently on site responsible for it.
Protection from loan fraud
Individual bank accounts with cards instead of cash wages — and a rule that keeps loan sharks out.
A five-day week
Instead of six eight-hour days — decided together with the workforce.
Our own filtration plant
Waste water from plating is cleaned and properly disposed of.
LED lighting
Switched over throughout — markedly less energy used.
Beyond production
Blood donation
Twice a year, voluntary — often more than a hundred units come together.
Planting mangroves
Twice a year, more than 10,000 seedlings along the coast of Cebu. Their roots hold the ground as sea levels rise.
Help after the typhoon
In 2013 our colleagues helped rebuild the north of Cebu after typhoon Yolanda.
Any brand can claim all of this. There is only one point at which it can be checked — your own piece.
04 / 08 ·Proud of each other
“Knowing who made it is a good feeling.”
By now we all know that we need to look after one another better. Because it does matter where the things we buy and wear come from, we share a responsibility — that the products we love also do good for the people who make them with their hands.
Meet the artisans — and see what they are making
The artisans behind our new collection. The pieces play through on their own, and for each one, the women who work on that design light up. Tap a face, a craft or a piece.
Opening the manufactory …
Names instead of seals — that is a decision. It also says what we think of our industry.
05 / 08 ·What we stand for
Why we carry no seal
We deliberately carry no environmental, quality or fair-trade seals. Too many of them mainly settle the conscience without explaining anything. That a pair of jeans for 15 euros cannot have been made under fair conditions is clear without a logo. We rely on something you can check instead: we show you the people.
Being responsible
We are responsible for what we do — and for what we leave undone. Towards the women who work with us and towards our customers. And towards the world, the environment and the culture in which they and we live and work.
“KONPLOTT wants to be a promoter of a safer, fairer, more transparent and more accountable fashion and industry.”
What we are measured against
The non-profit Fashion Revolution has set out ten demands for our industry. We hold ourselves to them — here are the four we are measured against most directly.
- #1
Fashion provides dignified work. It enslaves no one, endangers no one, exploits no one and discriminates against no one.
- #2
Fashion provides fair and equal pay — across the whole industry, from production to the shop floor.
- #4
Fashion respects culture and heritage. It honours and rewards craftsmanship. Fashion honours the maker.
- #8
Fashion is transparent. Anyone can find out how, where, by whom and under what conditions something was made.
So much for us. Which leaves the question of who this jewellery is actually made for.
06 / 08 ·Knowing who made it
For every woman, in every situation
Whether simple for every day or sparkling for a special occasion: every piece is a modern interpretation of femininity, celebrating the uniqueness of its wearer.
“My ambition has always been to create jewelry for every woman, in every situation. Not to promote just one or two trends, but to embrace diversity and a richness of facets – so that different women, with all their moods and contradictions, can see themselves reflected in it.”
Built to last
KONPLOTT makes pieces that last, and keeps the processes behind them as resource-efficient as possible. That is why we repair KONPLOTT jewellery free of charge — a piece you keep is the most economical piece of all.
“Buy only what makes your heart leap – today and tomorrow.”
Many of them have worn their pieces for years — and tell the story themselves, better than we could.
07 / 08 ·The community
1986 – 2026
And the women who wear it
For our fortieth year we opened a page where we are not the ones telling the story — you are. “Best of Miranda” collects what customers connect with KONPLOTT: the first piece, the photo from the party, the necklace worn every day for years. Ordered by year — from the first collection in 1986 to the current season.
Do you have a KONPLOTT memory? Share it — it becomes part of this story.
My first piece
What nearly everyone remembers — and what they tie it to.
Memories by year and collection
Forty vintages, each with its pieces and its stories.
Places and partners
Where KONPLOTT can be found and who stocks it — added by customers.
And that makes it possible to say what you hold when you decide on a piece.
What it is about
- Love
- Hope
- Mystery
- Health
- Friends
- Dignity
- Colour
- Music
- Happy dreams
- Movement
- Challenge
- Great solutions
- Speed
- Reflection
- Meditation
- Power
- Kindness
- An aim
Figures and years
What sits behind one collection name
Two pre-collections a year, two main collections a year — and new designs every month in between. A single theme is not a flash of inspiration but a piece of arithmetic:
6
themes make up a summer collection. “Kaleidotropical” is one of them.
3
colourways are made of that single theme.
35
designs come out of it — earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings.
105
articles is what that adds up to, every one set by hand.
KONPLOTT in the world
KONPLOTT has shown at the fairs in Milan, Paris and Germany since its first year.
12+
stores of our own.
24+
partner stores — Germany, Luxembourg, Moscow, China.
500+
retail partners worldwide, from Ireland to South Africa.
Milestones
- 1986 KONPLOTT is founded — and is at the trade fairs from the start.
- 1990 Jewellery from materials jewellery did not use — neoprene, for one.
- 1992 The South China Morning Post reports on Miranda as a “trend designer”.
- 1997 The first KONPLOTT store of our own opens.
- 1999 The idea of a manufactory founded on female solidarity.
- 2000 The women-run manufactory starts work.
- 2001 Our own atelier on Cebu, Philippines, is founded.
- 2007 Costumes for “Orpheus in the Underworld”, Vienna — in 2008 for “The Magic Flute”, Berlin.
- 2012 Six seasons at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin, through 2014.
- 2016 30 years of KONPLOTT.
08 / 08 ·What you get
What you hold when you buy a KONPLOTT piece
Three things that, taken together, no other brand in this industry can promise — and each one is backed up further up this page.
One of a kind
A design of Miranda Konstantinidou’s own. Nothing bought in, no outside studio — since 1986, collection after collection.
Made to last
Made by hand in our own manufactory: soldered, plated, set stone by stone, checked. And repaired free of charge, so that it stays.
Decent
Made by women who live from it — secure work, fair pay and a fund that belongs to them. And we tell you which of them works on your model.
- Miranda The designer behind KONPLOTT — in her own words.
- Stores KONPLOTT in person: addresses and opening hours.
- Service & care Questions about shipping, returns and caring for your jewellery.