The Legend of the Makech

Jürgen and I aren’t the types to spend much time thinking about jewelry. Neither of us owns a single piece, not a ring nor a bracelet, and I very rarely notice the jewelry worn by other people. But when the piece in question is a living beetle crawling around the chest of the person wearing it, it’s a little hard to ignore.

The Makech is one of the strangest fashion items we’ve ever seen. These are large beetles, found only in the Yucatán peninsula, with broad shells that can be decorated with...