Jewelry designer and brand creator of Wyphys, Chelsea Macalino-Calalay exudes fierceness, but also serenity. Rocking bleached brows that match her shag-mullet, a crystal blue gem on her canine tooth, delicate rings, and a thick gold chain, heart pendant choker, that was inherited from her auntie, Macalino-Calalay’s style is all encompassing. If her style and brand aesthetic was personified in a doll, it’d be more akin to Bratz then Barbie, because her custom jewelry pieces are about making statements, not meant to take the backseat to the wardrobe. 

Macalino-Calalay cites her strong sense of style to her fashion-forward family who migrated from the Philippines to San Francisco's SOMA neighborhood in the 1970s. Maintaining a relationship to the homeland is also a big part of Macalino-Calalay's craft and reflected in her Whyphys jewelry. Take her recent collection, Palengke, named after the wet markets in the Philippines. The beaded earrings and charm necklaces pay tribute to the ingredients and foods she’d see while visiting. One pair of dangly earrings is made up of peach quartz, a green glass bead, and dalmatian jasper to replicate the layered, multi-colored rice cake snack sapin-sapin.

 Macalino-Calalay’s gold plated Wyphys jewelry is colorful, spunky, and perfectly suited for all the occasions -- stunting at the workplace, hanging with the homies, even hittin’ up the skateparks. Macalino-Calalay actually beta tests the durability of her bling by skating with it, because as she says, she makes accessories for the “sweaty girlies” and “active people” who don't sacrifice comfort for fashion.

On this week’s episode of Rightnowish, Chelsea Macalino-Calalay talks about adornment with bling, the historical significance of gold for Pinoy folks, and how her Wyphy creations are a celebration of friendship, queerness and the hyphy state of mind. 

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