INXS‘ latest project is crafted from precious metal.
Having mined platinum across a decades-long career, the new wave act unveils a limited-edition jewelry range, made with 100% recycled silver.
A collaboration with Australia-based jeweler Michael Hill, the collection includes five unique pieces, including guitar pick pendants, rings, cuff, and a time capsule locket – all featuring signature band motifs.
“INXS is synonymous with music, but also fashion and lifestyle,” comments INXS drummer Jon Farriss in a statement. “Whether we were onstage performing live, filming a video or simply hanging out in our recording studio, we enjoyed finding and wearing funky bohemian jewelry which had personal meaning as well as catching a twinkle of light, while adding a sprinkle of attitude,” adds Farriss. “We are really digging these Michael Hill designs that reflect some of the things we still wear today – I still wear my INXS dog tags!”
The Michael Hill x INXS collection starts from A$169 ($111), and is available online and instore across Australia, New Zealand and Canada, until stocks last. Additional pieces in the range are expected to be released later in 2024.
The fashion-meets-rock team-up follows a 2022 Michael Hill “origin story” ad campaign, which was soundtracked by INXS’ iconic 1987 ballad “Never Tear Us Apart”.
“When we were planning and conceptualizing each piece, we wanted to ensure we honored the band’s stylistic history,” comments Maria Then, Michael Hill’s head of product design. “We have worked closely with INXS to build our jewelry range, which features an autographed guitar pick pendant that replicates the band’s actual guitar picks, heavy chains with hardware closures, and nods to some of their beautiful lyrics.”
This year marks the 47th anniversary for INXS, which has sold more than 70 million records sold worldwide, according to Petrol Records, and whose catalog has accumulated more than 4 billion streams.
Formed in Western Australia in 1977, INXS scaled the loftiest mountain of popular music with six U.K. top 10 albums (including a No. 1 with Welcome To Wherever You Are from 1992) and five U.S. top 20 albums, a BRIT Award (in 1991 for best international group) and, in 2001, elevation into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
The band’s journey was tragically derailed by the 1997 death of lead singer Michael Hutchence, at the age of just 37, though INXS continued for a time with replacement singers.
The surviving members of INXS reunited last October in Sydney to present Calling All Nations, a 400-plus “love letter” created by a global fanbase and the band. UMG’s Andrew Kronfeld and Live Nation’s Arthur Fogel contributed essays.
Despite calling time on touring more than a decade ago, the INXS story continues to grow. The band’s multi-platinum career retrospective from 2011, INXS – The Very Best, was the top album by a homegrown artist in Australia, according to year-end 2023 trade data published earlier this month by ARIA.
Check out the Michael Hill x INXS range here.
