Morgan Lang of AGMES on Memory, Meaning, and Making Jewellery That Lasts
A second skin
By Kiri Johnston | 6th June 2025I first came across AGMES in Brisbane, tucked inside St. Agni’s James Street store about seven years ago. At the time, I didn’t know the name. But the pieces spoke to me: sculptural, tactile, quietly cool. They felt like jewellery you wore because it meant something, not because it was trending. I was drawn to them and couldn’t stop thinking about them. Years later, the two brands would go on to collaborate during Australian Fashion Week ’23, pairing AGMES’ signature silver with St. Agni’s soft minimalism — a full-circle moment that made perfect sense.
Fast forward to a warm, windless afternoon during Australian Fashion Week. I’m sitting on a balcony in Darlinghurst with Morgan Lang, the woman behind the brand. She arrives in a tangerine-toned dress, her skin softly catching the light beneath layers of AGMES jewels. The pieces don’t sit on her, they belong to her. They feel like an effortless extension of who she is — part of her, natural, instinctive, and completely her own.
“I still don’t think of myself as a jeweller,” she says, glancing out over the city. “I just make what I want to wear.”
Her cuffs curve like liquid across the wrist. Earrings ripple with asymmetry. There’s a sense of movement in every line, as if each piece was formed mid-thought and left unfinished, on purpose. They feel sculptural yet soft, modern yet emotionally grounded. The kind of jewellery that never tries too hard, but still leaves an impression.
Morgan Lang, Founder + Designer of AGMES NYC
A quiet kind of beginning
Lang didn’t plan to become a jeweller. “It was just something I loved,” she tells me. “I didn’t think of it as a career. I didn’t even know it could be one.” Raised in Washington D.C. with deep ties to Mexico City through her mother’s side, her earliest memories involve silver markets, heirlooms, and the ritual of adornment. “It was always around. My grandmother had this incredible collection — pieces from her travels, from family. I just connected with it in a way I couldn’t explain.”
She took her first jewellery class at three years old. Later came business school, a role in buying, and a sketchbook filled with designs she couldn’t find anywhere. “I’d dream of pieces and wake up sketching them. I wasn’t trying to sell them, I just needed to make them.”
It was a friend, Andrew, who gave her the push. “He told me I’d been talking about it for years, and I had to stop pretending it wasn’t real.” The next day, she quit her job. When Andrew passed away soon after, she named the brand AGMES, combining their initials. “It felt like the only choice,” she says. “He was a part of it from the start.”
The feel of things
AGMES is best known for its sculptural forms: molten edges, imperfect symmetry, bold silhouettes cast in sterling silver. But for Lang, it’s not just about shape. “Comfort is everything,” she says. “I want the pieces to feel like they’re meant to be there. You don’t think about them. They just become part of you.”
Each design begins with her. Sometimes she sketches by hand, sometimes she sculpts in clay, other times she works in CAD. The process is fluid, depending on where she is and what she’s feeling. Some pieces take years to perfect. “Especially the cuffs,” she adds. “They have to fit just right. You want to forget you’re wearing them. That’s the goal.”
Lang’s background isn’t in formal jewellery training, which is perhaps why the brand’s evolution feels so organic. “I’ve been a collector longer than I’ve been a designer,” she says. “I’m still learning. The pieces grow with me.”
A woman with quiet strength
There’s a distinct tone to AGMES. It’s modern but not loud. Luxurious but not overworked. When I ask Lang who she designs for, her answer is instinctive. “She’s creative. Confident. Quietly strong. She gravitates toward pieces that hold meaning and feel good to wear.”
Her latest collection, Symbols of Love, was born in the lead-up to her wedding. Her current favourite piece is a ring from that series. “It started as one idea and ended up feeling like something completely different. Now, it feels like a hug around my finger. A reminder to be gentler with myself.”
New York, always
Lang has lived in New York City for over 15 years. The city, she says, feeds her creatively even when it wears her down. “It’s intense. It’s everything, all the time. But there’s a grit and beauty to it that keeps me going.” One of her most recent collections was directly inspired by New York, capturing its tension, boldness, and emotional weight.
Still, she finds balance in ritual. Saturday mornings at the farmers market with Ralphie, her black labrador. Time in the kitchen. Painting for her apartment. “I try to create in everything I do,” she says. “Not just jewellery.” She tells me about a market vendor who bakes croissant-shaped dog treats filled with peanut butter. “They made Ralphie a giant one for his birthday,” she says, smiling. It’s small details like this that seem to anchor her. There’s a softness beneath the structure.
Out in the wild
Despite a loyal following (Michelle Obama wears AGMES on repeat), it’s the unexpected moments that mean the most. “The first time I saw someone on the subway wearing one of my rings, I was in shock,” Lang says. “She didn’t know it was me. She just told me how much she loved it.”
What excites her is seeing how people wear AGMES in ways she’d never expect. “Someone once wore a brooch as a belt. It was so unexpected, but so cool. That’s the magic of it. The pieces aren’t prescriptive. They’re meant to be reinterpreted.”
For those just starting out
I ask what she’d say to someone at the beginning of a creative path. “Believe in yourself,” she says. “And surround yourself with people who reflect back the version of you that you’re becoming. Sometimes you just need someone to remind you that you’re already doing it.” And sometimes, all it takes is one piece, worn like a second skin, to remind you who you are. AGMES has just released Ilona, its newest collection. Inspired by the elements that shape our natural world — water, earth, air, and fire — the pieces ripple with movement and meaning. Corded pendants, fluid silhouettes, and stacked metal forms evoke the rhythm of the shore and the softness of waves. It’s AGMES at its most instinctive — tactile, sculptural, and quietly powerful.
