IN HER ‘FREE-GIRL’ ERA: INSIDE ERA DANIEL’S STYLE EVOLUTION

Era Daniel, 22, shows off her handcrafted wired jewelry designs in a VI madras bikini, representing her style evolution. Photo courtesy of Era Daniel.

Era Daniel has never been shy about living life on her own terms and the demur, but sometimes fiery St. Croix creative takes pride in reinventing herself with each passing year. Now on the cusp of her 23rd birthday on Oct. 8, Era is once again shedding the scales of other people’s expectations and writing a new chapter in her story.

“I’ve had different versions of myself every year and I’ve enjoyed every last one of them,” she says with the brightest smile.

I met up with Era on a warm July afternoon at Fort Christiansvaern National Historic Site. Dressed in a flowy, mint-green, hi-low mini dress accessorized with a selection of gorgeous pieces from her handcrafted jewelry collection and a boldly printed headwrap, she strutted across the lawn, very much like a goddess, toward the picnic table where I awaited her arrival for our interview.

22-year-old Era wears a light and flowy dress, contrasted with a boldly printed headwrap in July.

If you live on St. Croix, you know Era as an award-winning vegan chef (the co-owner of Vital Vibrations has snagged top honors at the annual Bush Cook Chef Cook Competition three years in a row), as well as the familiar warm and welcoming face at Christa’s Art Gallery in downtown Christiansted, a post she recently left.

Era is in her free-girl era, a time where she wants to explore new styles of dressing, get in front of the camera more often, as well as expand her jewelry-making business that she calls her “heart.” She is preparing to shake things up in her wardrobe and dive into “earthy-girl style,” which she describes as nature-inspired clothing that is “loose, flowy, and comfortable.”

“I want to dress how I feel, which is free,” the young solopreneur confides.

Era’s Evolving Style

While flowy, earth-toned pieces are starting to fill up Era’s closet these days, her style has gone through several iterations, as the young woman continues to come into her own. At age 19, she dressed mostly in dashikis and long pencil skirts with bold, African-printed head wraps. “That was when I was diving into the knowledge of African tradition in everything,” she says. “I was finding out where I wanted to be.”

At 20, she “started making more clothing for myself and that’s when I started getting involved with cooking by myself, not just cooking with my family, but creating food that I wanted to create,” she explains. “I wanted to go beyond and create even healthier food.” Back then, her and her former partner were known for embracing African culture and cooking healthy foods. This is also around the time when she launched her jewelry business.

At ages 21 and 22, Era began exploring what she describes as a “more sexy” style of dressing.

“I wanted to mix it up and combine the two [cultural styles with modern influences]. I want to feel like I still have my roots, but I want to do it in a more modern way—I’m still young. I can do that,” she says.

“I love staying true to my roots. I learn a lot from my elders around me,” she adds. “I still wear my African clothes, but I used to wear a lot more back then. Sometimes I want to wear African-centric and sometimes I just want to look pretty and wear whatever catches my eye.”

And speaking of roots, Era was born in Isreal and raised there as a toddler. She is the youngest of a large and loving family of seven children. Her parents, who are both from Antigua, returned the family to St. Croix when Era was just four and has remined here since. The family lived on St. Croix prior to making the move to Israel to more deeply connect with both their African and spiritual identity in the Hebrew tradition. While Era hasn’t been back to her birth country, she does intend to visit one day. She says she takes great pride in her Afro-Caribbean heritage, as well as her Hebrew heritage.

“Growing up in our household on St. Croix, all we knew was our Hebrew tradition, so we would get together with other families of the same tradition and we would [celebrate holy days], go to Cramer’s Park dressed in our African clothes [for certain gatherings] and by doing that, I realized this is what I love,” she explains.

The Gen Zer says it’s important for cultural fabrics like madras and African prints to be made into modern clothing styles to attract more young people like her to them.

“With today’s styles, it would get more young people to get to dress more Afrocentric,” she says. “To get the younger generations to wear their cultural clothing, it doesn’t have to be all the time, but just to embrace it sometimes, you have to mix the two in order for them to feel more comfortable wearing it.”

Handcrafted Jewelry That Heals

There’s yet another side to Era: wired jewelry maker. She describes herself as being “good with my hands” and says her “jewelry has a lot of healing benefits.” Her journey from chef to jewelry maker began only three years ago and is in line with her knack for reinventing herself. The self-taught artesian, who admits to clocking countless hours of YouTube tutorials to learn the craft, supplemented by a handful of local classes in jewelry making, uses copper and brass wiring for many of her creations, often incorporating cowry shells into the designs, too.

Era showcases an arm length of her handcrafted wired jewelry in July 2025 during our meeting at Ft. Christiansvaern.

Era has also given herself over to the study of the healing powers of crystals, pointing out that when copper and brass wiring are used with the stones, “it amplifies the energy of the crystals.”

“When I started my journey of getting into crystals, I didn’t want to just wire it or make a piece of jewelry and give it to someone, I want to actually tell them ‘this is what it’s for,’” she says. “I wanted it to be more than jewelry; I wanted it to be ‘this is a part of my healing journey’ and make it a part of theirs.”

Era’s handcrafted jewelry sold at Christa’s Art Gallery in C’sted, St. Croix.

She is proud of the work she is doing with her jewelry and sees it as something she intends to do long-term.

“Just hearing the reviews other people have given of my pieces, it has helped them feel better about themselves,” Era says. “Even if you don’t want to wear them for spiritual purposes, they are statement pieces and can enhance your outfits.”

A Growth Mindset

If you talk to Era for any length of time, you’ll quickly recognize that she exudes wisdom well beyond her years. As such, she says it is not lost on her that her elders of a different era who have watched her grow up may have mixed feelings about the changes she’s making in her life. She’s been enjoying the new-found freedom and creativity of showing off her more sensual side in front of the camera by modeling bikini wear.

She says a recent encounter with one elder who lovingly encouraged her to “cover up” is something she is prepared to face in order to have the life and the freedom she craves. “It’s situations like this that have me thinking about the decisions I’m making, but I also have to think about what makes me happy,” she says.

She went on to explain that she doesn’t “dress vulgar, but I do show skin sometimes. I’m not dressing to get attention, it’s just that I go with how I feel at the moment, and the elders will just have to accept that.”

Make no mistake, Era respects the opinions of her elders, but she also knows what she wants in life.

“They always have my best interests at heart, and I look up to and love them, regardless,” she says. “But as young people, we have to express ourselves and that’s how we find out who we want to be in life. I’m definitely open to where the winds take me and just being my authentic self and having a love for what I wear and what I do.”

It would serve us well to take a page from Era’s book and free up ourselves, too, no matter our age.