Billie Eilish's fave jewellery brand Heart of Bone has collaborated with rock legends AC/DC

For Heart of Bone founder Emma Addams and her brother Lenny, working with AC/DC – who made their famous video clip A Long Way to the Top in Melbourne’s Swanston Street in 1976 – is a childhood dream come true. The Melbourne label is the first to collaborate with the band on a limited edition range of jewellery and clothing.

Conversations began in 2019, so the collection, which also features cashmere sweaters made from the Chanel-owned House of Barrie in Scotland, has been a labour of love and determination.

“AC/DC was the first concert I ever went to when I was 13,” says Addams from her Collingwood studio. “If you had asked me back when I first started Heart of Bone, with a five-month-old baby, who my dream collaborations of my career would be, I honestly could never have imagined this.”

The collection features AC/DC logo rings in sterling silver and gold, lightning-bolt studs and 100 per cent Australian made T-shirts in black, white and some with a UV-activated design. It all ties in with the 40th anniversary of the band’s Back in Black release.

Long before the AC/DC collaboration, Heart of Bone had already made inroads with celebrities and musicians around the world, including Billie Eilish, who discovered the label in 2019 and created a frenzy when she appeared wearing a bunny ring.

In Australia, the label is stocked at David Jones, and the range comes packed with plenty of grunt: think embellished skulls, daggers, bones and hearts themed with rock’n’roll debauchery.

It was Addams’ brother Lenny’s idea to start a separate business, Custom Creed, that would link what they do with luxury rockwear for the music industry. There’ll be more collaborations on the way after the AC/DC coup.

“To provide a steady income stream to try and make up some of the losses from touring and live music grinding to a halt made sense,” Addams says.

Through blood, sweat and tears, Addams has come through and lived to tell. A divorce from her husband of 18 years took its toll last year. She home-schooled their two children, all while trying to navigate the AC/DC deal and working from home during lockdowns.

“But we’re back, and this time, nothing is going to stop us. I suddenly knew everything in my life had given me the skills I’d need for what was coming, and my life was changed forever.

“It hit me that freedom was on the other side of fear, and I was getting there whatever way I could,” she says.”