Dior Joaillerie
31 December
Dior are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Dior Joaillerie with two new joyfully colourful collections, Gem Dior and Rose Dior Pop. The pieces nod to the past with familiar design references, but this year’s bold colours and whimsical architectures is wholly new. For creative director Victoire de Castellane, the jewellery’s history is significant: ‘Each of my collections leads to the next and I adore the idea of going even further. I hate being bored.’ Her achievements in telling the stories of the Maison – she cites Christian Dior’s garden at Milly-la-Forêt, the eccentric grand balls and the couture as vital elements to her design – are intertwined with her own personal experiences. ‘The themes which inspire my collections are just a starting point. When I create, I am still five years old. I like to approach creation as children approach a game, with an open mind and with the freedom that childhood offers.’
Writer: Hannah Silver
Tessa Packard
20 December
At Wallpaper* HQ, we get a plethora of holiday-themed post through our doors. But nothing has provoked more festive joy than jeweller Tessa Packard’s yuletide regards, which arrived in the form of a soft pink-toned card with punch out ‘Merry Christmas’ earrings. We’ll be donning these merry messaged-designs all festive season through, and might just wear them in the new year too.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Hirsh London
19 December
There’s nothing like a glittering snowflake to brighten up December days. For the last 15 years, Hirsh London has created an annual Snowflake pendant design to mark the festive season, weaving dazzling gems into intricate, hypnotising patterns of precious geometry. ‘We always begin with the central gemstone in the same way that snowflakes are first formed with a central ice crystal,’ explains Jason Hirsh, creative director. The gem-specialist’s yearly Snowflake is a unique piece, as complex and rare as any snowflake in both construction and design. As it takes hundreds of ice crystals to form one snowflake, so dozens of gemstones make up the pendant’s symmetrical design. ‘As in nature, we pride ourselves on creating unique forms: no two designs are ever the same,’ says Hirsh. This year, however, the brand has broken with its own tradition, designing two unique pieces: the first is delicately hued – a natural fancy-blue diamond surrounded with rare pink diamonds, while the second is a wheel of diamond spikes punctuated with a central flash of emerald. In the spirit of seasonal nostalgia, we’ve homed in on the Hirsh family archive and picked out this 2006 design, its brittle snow crystals replaced by tightly interlocking diamonds in a tantalisingly mesmeric variety of cuts.
Writer: Hannah Silver
Caralarga
13 December
Textile design workshop Caralarga’s focus on simplicity has resulted in a pared-back approach to design, and it is the craftsmanship rather than the materials which are at the heart of clothes and jewels. The company’s artisans, adept at working with natural materials such as fibres from the sansevieria plant and recycled bull horn, here manipulate raw cotton threads. In their hands, the material originally discarded after errors in production become intricate textured jewels in their own right.
Peruffo
11 December
Italian jewellery brand Peruffo is inspired by Vicenza’s thriving gold industry for its fluid jewels. Rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings are free-flowing and unconstructed; designed to move with the body, they are fun to wear. The Slide collection combines the rigidity of the shapes with the central spiral of the design, and the end results are mini kinetic sculptures that take on a life of their own.
Arman Sarkisyan
6 December
In the fifteen years since he created his eponymous jewellery brand, Arman Sarkisyan’s style has become well-defined. The Armenian-born designer, now based in LA, favours a Byzantine aesthetic and tends to incorporate a wealth of bright and precious materials, from gold to colourful gems, for rich results. It is the hypnotising deep blue of lapis lazuli taking centre stage in these Starry Night earrings, which takes on a tantalising new edge when framed with oxidised silver.
Tomfoolery
4 December
Art Ring, an exhibition from London jewellery boutique Tomfoolery, opens this week. Over 40 established and emerging jewellers have created one-of-a-kind rings for the occasion; using an abundance of techniques and materials, they are united in a shared commitment to bold design. Ana Thompson’s swirl of gold and clever curves, pictured, will join unique pieces from Jacqueline Cullen, Ruth Tomlinson, Fraser Hamilton and many more.
Sonia Boyajian
3 December
The jewellery designer Sonia Boyajian has long been admired for the sculptural and art-based processes she embraces to create her individualistic and one-of-a-kind pieces. Evocative and captivating, her collections now have an equally enigmatic space to call home – a 5,000 square foot spot in West Hollywood that encompasses a boutique, ceramic studio, private office and pop-up art gallery, filled with homey touches. Created in collaboration together with interior designer Pamela Shamshiri, Boyajian’s new home base is inspired by her collections of objects from her travels around the world. Studio Shamshiri looked to Georgia O’Keefe, Donald Judd, Robert Mallet-Stevens and Le Corbusier when creating the custom-made display niches and dusty rose-toned interior of the space. Restrained, yet architectural, the space creates an elegant foil to Boyajian’s designs – many of which have been adapted and enlarged to form the ceramic sconces, mobiles and pendants that decorate the interior as well.
Writer: Pei-Ru Keh
Annoushka
27 November
London-based jeweller Annoushka turns ten this year, and its anniversary-celebrating collection riffs on the reptilian. ‘The Chameleon Ring pays homage to our first Chameleon collection, as well as my love for nature and playfulness in jewellery,’ explains founder Annoushka Ducas, of this wide-eyed figurative design, which features a curling white gold tail which winds around the finger. This cheeky chameleon swaps diamonds for scales and also features a gemstone body in onyx, lapis, malachite or tiger’s eye, which can be interchanged so it really does change colour. ‘It is very fitting that we mark our 10th year with a design that illustrates the transition of our collection,’ Dukas adds. ‘It’s a journey I look forward to continuing for many years to come.’
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Solange
25 November
We’ve got real affection towards Solange’s Sentimentals collection, which features pieces that posit on life’s most emotive elements. Take the humorous ‘Memory Bank’ necklace, a brain shape locket that can house a secret photographic memento inside, or the ‘Wisdom’ ring, which features a diamond-set wisdom tooth, set inside an 18-ct gold claw. We’d love to add this ‘Family’ ring to our haute household. Resembling a fine family portrait, it features a mother of pearl frame, housing a gemstone-bodied family of four, holding hands next to a malachite and tiger’s eye tree. Family jewels indeed.
Suzanne Kalan
20 November
Suzanne Kalan’s twisting of conventional design concepts always surprises. Her past work, which married scatterings of baguette diamonds with large unblemished gems, or set diamonds in surprising places, nodded to traditional techniques whilst appearing wholly fresh. Her latest pieces for Dover Street Market are equally as subversive; the brand’s signature baguette-cut and princess-cut diamonds are randomly paved and when enveloped in black rhodium, starkly modern.
aeyde
12 November
Longtime fans of aeyde’s footwear offering, we rejoiced when last winter the Berlin-based label launched its debut nine-piece jewellery collection. Now, the label has bought some colour to its latest offering, with organic earrings – from twisted hoops to organically scrunched drop earrings – hand dipped in pistachio and red enamel. They’ll bring an elegant touch of colour to any winter ensemble, most notably, ones paired with aeyde’s Western boots.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Sophia Vari
6 November
Greek artist Sophia Vari is the focus of Jewellery, Painting & Sculpture, currently exhibiting at London’s Louisa Guinness Gallery. Bringing together her jewellery, paintings and sculptures from the last three decades, it showcases a style characterised by voluminous detailing and bold, curving lines. ‘In a piece of jewellery or a sculpture, the balance, the weight and the way that it feels is so important and I think that’s what Sophia really does so well,’ Guinness says. ‘We presented her large scale works alongside her wearable sculpture to give her admirers more context on how one practice informs and carries through the other.’
Writer: Hannah Silver
Marni
31 October
There’s a surrealist slant behind the jewellery in Marni’s ‘Wandering in Stripes’ holiday collection. The offering features Breton strip knits and cotton poplin dresses emblazoned with naturalistic motifs, but we’re paying real lip service to its range of rope necklaces, aysmmetric earrings and pins, which feature resin charms in the forms of cartoonish red mouths and eyes blinking with dense eyelashes. For festive frolics, we’ll be pinning this brooch to a tailored lapel, allowing the bold eye blinking in the centre of the pin a customary glance around the room of any party.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Chaumet
30 October
Chaumet celebrates the fluidity of jewellery’s role in Autrement, an exhibition taking place in Paris until Saturday which explores the ways jewellery can be worn with a series of portraits by Swedish photographer Julia Hetta. Pieces from the heritage collection – a Seventies adornment in hammered gold and bronze, a playing card brooch created by Pierre Sterlé in the Sixties – join contemporary jewels in Hetta’s romantically subversive style. Bracelets loop over shoulders, a full paved wedding band holds back a strand of hair and, pictured, diamond-studded sheafs of wheat from the L’Épi de Blé de Chaumet collection become modern hair accessories. ‘Jewellery has always been a territory of experimentation and twist, transforming the very first function of a jewel to make it your own and to adapt it to a different use,’ says Chaumet CEO Jean-Marc Mansvelt. ‘These unconventional wearings are very Chaumet but also very much part of the history of art. It is beautiful and it makes sense.’
Writer: Hannah Silver
Ruhong Chen
25 October
Kath Libbert’s flair for spotting new jewellery talent is integral to the success of her gallery at Salts Mill, and her graduate exhibitions are a highlight in the industry calendar. Flux, which runs until 10 November, puts nine new jewellers from across the UK under the spotlight. Edinburgh College of Art graduate Ruhong Chen has been inspired by Buddhist philosophy for this piece, playing with ideas of impermanence and incorporating charcoal for a brooch that will only reveal its precious interior over time. The more it is worn, the quicker the gold within will be revealed, in a celebration of the transient nature of fragility.
Diaboli Kill
21 October
When conceiving the pieces in Diaboli Kill’s Invidia collection, founder Angie Marei adopted the roll of a flaneur, taking inspiration from an evening stroll through the streets of Paris. This has culminated in a series of chunky cocktail rings formed from hand-carved columns of black onyx and 18-ct gold and edged with pearls or coloured gemstones, like citrine and sapphire. Marei was particularly taken with the Art Deco period and the mathematical assemblage of onyx nods to the graphic style of the era. ‘The pearls nod to rows of street lamps glowing in the night,’ she adds of this ring’s ornamental orbs. How aesthetically illuminating.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Lisa Walker
18 October
Lisa Walker has questioned the nature of jewellery itself during a career which has seen her incorporate everything from lost woolly knits and abandoned parts, to gold foil and more conventionally precious materials, into her pieces. The New Zealand based jeweller frequently exhibits her creations in galleries and museums around the world: they can currently be admired at London’s Gallery SO, in an exhibition taking place until the 27 October. Witty and irreverent, they include this necklace crafted from merino wool and stuffing, which adds a welcome playful accent to the everyday.
Writer: Hannah Silver
Jemma Wynne
15 October
There’s a modernity behind diamonds which float on the finger, and appear free from the band they have been set on. It’s a style which Stephanie Wynne Lalin and Jenny Klatt of Jemma Wynne know well. The duo create open rings set with emerald, tanzanite and pairs of pear cut diamonds or Art Deco-inspired bands with ends that gently graze each other as they wrap around the finger. Boasting floating finesse, this one of a kind ring features an unusually elongated baguette diamond, which appears to float next to a delicate pavé diamond band. We think it’s an enchanting alternative to an engagement ring or simply something which will twinkle on your finger for any elegant occasion.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
D’Heygere
11 October
We’ve got a burning desire towards D’Heygere’s Ashtray Ring, a handy and playful piece which will allow you to tap the ash from your cigarette while on the go. Belgian founder Stephanie D’Heygere has ignited our interest since she launched her surrealist accessories label last year, which incorporates everyday objects with alluring effect. ‘Everything I make has a reason to exist – there is always a lot of thought put behind it,’ she told Wallpaper* back in July. S/S 2020 also sees signet rings reimagined as chunky ear cuffs, long earrings crafted from silver shoehorns and a belt with a buckle which snugly holds a Bic lighter. These accessories are smoking hot.
Maria Black
10 October
There’s real wiggle room behind Maria Black’s Acquatica collection. For her latest undulating offering, the Danish designer was inspired by the slow-motioned movements of the underwater world, like gently rolling waves and water swirling into sand. Here, long asymmetric earrings feature pearls suspended from wiggles of pavé gold and delicate cuffs feature gentle curves which trail around the wrist. Black associates the sea with calm and reassurance, and you’re sure to find these pieces just as soothing.
Shihara
8 October
Japanese label Shihara is rethinking the way jewellery is retailed. For its new boutique in Osaka, designer Yuta Ishihara has conceived an unconventional, yet practical space to present his minimalist creations. Working with Masahiro and Mao Harada of Mount Fuji Architects, the pared back, mostly concrete space is backed by an impressively functional design. At fist glance, bare walls and an absence of details makes the store appear unfinished. However, hidden wall panels actually open up to reveal concealed glass display cases filled with Shihara’s delicate collection. Just like in its Tokyo store, which opened in 2014, each piece is suspended within magnetized walls and on thin glass shelving. What’s more, the opened wall panels also divide the store into several intimate spaces, including a private viewing area at the back of the store, thus bringing Shihara’s design philosophy to life at an architectural scale.
Writer: Pei-Ru Keh
Vhernier
4 October
Milan-based jeweller Vhernier pair unexpected materials for contemporary results, and have previously had fun layering rock crystal with mother-of-pearl, or playing with ebony and jet. The new Trottola collection takes a darker turn, uniting black matte titanium with more traditional pavé diamonds in an appealing clash of textures. Like every Vhernier piece, nothing detracts from the end result thanks to flawless invisible fastenings.
Writer: Hannah Silver
Deborah Pagini
27 September
New York based jeweller Deborah Pagini has imbued her signature luxe understated style with an easy functionality. The Pill Link necklace, composed of heavy links of yellow gold, can be worn six ways. There is also the option to remove nine links and the heavy pill of diamond and enamel itself and wear it alone as a bracelet, if feeling so inclined. Worn layered, long or with a single dangling chain, the plethora of ways this necklace can be worn means the purchase itself won’t be such a bitter pill to swallow.
Rado Star Prize
25 September
3D design student Huw Evans has been announced as the third winner of the Rado Star Prize. His design, ‘Concertina,’ stayed faithful to the ‘Re:Imagine’ theme, which looked at how reinterpreting existing designs can bring new value. The collection is created from timber, cut in such a way as to appear fluid. By working on the exterior only and keeping the inside raw, he has celebrated the material in its natural form.
Faraone Mennella
18 September
Robert Faraone Mennella and Amedeo Scognamiglio, the duo behind Faraone Mennella, add a Dolce Vita edge to their Italian heritage for bold, colourful jewels. Now, they have taken their love of a polished surface to a new level, and their thunderbolt earrings, crafted from titanium and studded with precious stones, are fabulously flamboyant. Comfort remains a main preoccupation for the design duo, who have engineered the perfect storm of high impact and wearability with earrings so light on the lobes you can barely feel them.
Flora Bhattachary
13 September
Flora Bhattachary’s distinctively sharp silhouettes are recognisable in the rainbow-hued ‘Lakshmi Glow’ collection, but her embrace of a plethora of bright tones is entirely new. The rings come in six ceramic-plated subdued jewel tones, juxtaposing her Indian links with a love of Art Deco design in a joyful celebration of colour.
Isla Gilham
11 September
Since graduating from Central Saint Martins last year, Isla Gilham’s jewels have been showered in acclaim. It is easy to see why she was recently announced as one of International Jewellery London’s Bright Young Gems; her teasing reinterpretations of traditional jewellery concepts are both playful and fun. The plethora of brightly coloured gems she uses – green quartz, emeralds, carnelians and malachite are all favourites – appear to have had a big juicy bite taken from them, nodding to the indulgent nature of jewellery itself. Jewels that are this tempting? It’s no surprise they are good enough to eat.
Alighieri
5 September
On Tuesday evening, a host of striking women spanning all ages and ethnicities, stepped silently down the aisle of the intimate gilded mosaic Fitzrovia Chapel in Central London. Clad in soft monastic shirt dresses, they walked soporifically in pairs, like a cultish community, or pagan worshippers, towards a spindly scorched tree at the church’s altar, sporting swathes of molten jewellery, including gold and silver chains dangling with tusk and coin pendants, chunky ankle cuffs and long earrings jingling with pearls.
Rosh Mahtani, founder of mythic London-based jewellery brand Alighieri, has sought Dante’s Divine Comedy for inspiration since launching her label in 2014. The author was in exile in the 1300s when writing his famed narrative poem, and it’s this concept of displacement – one experienced by Mahtani herself, which has inspired her S/S 2020 ‘Where is home?’ collection, debuted with a catwalk show. Mahtani was born in Zambia – where her grandparents fled to during the Partition of India – before moving to London at the age of eight. ‘The sense of not belonging to any one place had, in all honesty, always made me feel inferior to those around me,’ she explains. Her S/S 2020 collection is offered as a ‘patchwork of her cultures, memories and rituals, tying them together through woven chains, strings and links, to create a home of my [Mahtani’s] own’. In today’s political climate, it’s an ideal to be sought more than ever.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Shihara
2 September
The minimalism of each of Shihara’s jewellery pieces hardly comes close to summing up the level of discreet sophistication that underscores each design. Since establishing the label in 2010, the Tokyo-based designer Yuta Ishihara has consistently rethought how jewellery is made. Each of Shihara’s pieces boast integrated posts for earrings, concealed clasps that secure necklaces, as well as a multi-dexterity in terms of how pieces can be worn – often in multiple ways. One of the label’s newest additions is a jazzed up version of its Rectangle earring, featuring a row of diamonds along one side. Made from 18-ct gold, the earring is made from a proprietary gold alloy, specially created for Shihara in Japan, which enables the micro diamonds (each 0.7mm) to be held securely in a four-prong setting. Strong, yet featherlight, the earring can be worn as an earring or as an ear cuff to suit the wearer’s mood.
Writer: Pei-Ru Keh
Marion Vidal
30 August
Marion Vidal’s plexiglass jewels incorporate a wealth of juxtapositions: combining fragility with strength, they cut imposing silhouettes and yet are playfully light. The Petals earrings come in a choice of ten clear plexiglass hues, but it is this deep blue which has us captivated.
Writer: Hannah Silver
Faris
21 August
There’s an effusive energy behind these Verre Hoops. Designed by Seattle-based Faris du Graf, the jeweller had the movement of a salt shaker in mind, imagining the red glass beads which hang from these irregular circles of bronze metal to judder and jiggle. For maximum trembling potential, we recommend an energetic turn on the dancefloor, where the earrings’ bead details will waggle and wiggle, and will also reflect the glimmer of the disco ball.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Kalmar
19 August
Kalmar’s focus on the human silhouette manifests itself in a myriad of ways, casting surreal faces in bronze rings and inviting Reuben-esque goddesses to recline in spherical earrings. With a focus on sustainability, all pieces are crafted in London from recycled brass. Proportions are playfully oversized, and these brass large face profile earrings sway far below the jawline.
Writer: Hannah Silver
Prasi
16 August
There’s a mosaic-inspired mindset behind Brazil-based brand Prasi. The fine jewellery label – new to Dover Street Market’s roster – has a penchant for the gummy ring silhouette and its latest collections features drop earrings and rings derived from this shape. This piece has been spliced together from two identical slivers of rose and white gold, for a captivating bi-colour effect. Which way the ring is worn is dependant on whether the wearer fancies something smoothly polished or more sparkling on show. Prasi’s founders Helena Sicupira and Mariana Prates also incorporate the design heritage of their home country into its creations. All pieces are soft finished with rounded lines in a nod to the style of Sixties Brazilian furniture.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Renna
12 August
The first piece of jewellery Renna Brown-Taher designed was a charm bracelet dangling with gold coffee bean shells, inspired by the beach bounty she discovered on the shores of Salt Creek Beach in Laguna, California. A beachcombing aesthetic is central to Taher’s eponymous jewellery line, which includes a pavé diamond detail ring with a fluid freely moving mother of pearl drop pendant and a slim 18-ct gold chain bracelet with an ocean blue topaz rondelle accented with sapphires. The cut-out form of these Lunasea hoop earrings evoke both the spiralling form of a shell and a foaming whirlpool of waves. Constructed from blackened gold, there’s also an evening time elegance in their design. Viewed from one side, a smooth opal is revealed at the centre of each hoop, while from the other, pavé diamonds snake around the slivers of coiling metal.
Bleecker & Prince
8 August
There is a sense of humour to New York-based jewellery brand Bleecker & Prince’s pieces, where precious materials become fun and gems pepper lapis, jade and onyx like the sprinklings on a cupcake. It’s the perfect bubble of the clear crystal we are craving though – adorned with rose gold bezels, sapphires, whited diamonds and rubies, it really does look good enough to eat.
Writer: Hannah Silver
Cecilie Bahnsen and Sophie Bille Brahe
5 August
Visit Copenhagen Fashion Week – which for S/S 2020, kicks off in the Danish capital tomorrow – and you’ll be warmed by the sense of familial unity which stems from its catwalks. Designers sit at each other’s shows, supporting from their sidelines, and friendship feels like a true creative force. Ready-to-wear designer Cecilie Bahnsen and jeweller Sophie Bille Brahe know a thing or two about this unity. The duo first met when studying at the Royal College of Art and have remained firm friends ever since, Bahnsen going on gain renown for her subversively pretty dresses, which sparkle with beadwork, and Brahe for her sculptural experimentations with diamonds and pearls. Now the two have bolstered their bond with a 22-piece capsule collection, available exclusively from today at Net-a-porter. The range includes a series of freshwater pearl pieces, which evoke Brahe’s recent Botticelli collection, like these clustered earrings which appear to bubble in foamy fronds down the jawline.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Samuel Francois
31 July
French stylist Samuel Francois’ first jewellery collection merged Surrealist and macabre influences for an eclectic collection which included bronzed skulls and eyes dripping tears, swaying from heavy gold necklaces. Now, his focus has shifted to the lips. Each pair of lips on the rough sheets of gold which make up his necklaces, earrings and bracelets are unique, and unforgiving: every crack in the lip and every gently curved philtrum is exposed. Francois’ fingerprints can be occasionally glimpsed; in other places, it’s clear his nail has tweaked a lip into shape. Naturalistic in design and yet cast in gold, the results are unapologetically, appealingly rough.
Writer: Hannah Silver
Meadowlark
26 July
When embarking on the research process for its latest Venus collection, Meadowlark founders Claire Hammon and Greg Fromont found 1970s lighting design particularly illuminating. These organic earrings nod to the naturalistic shape of Carlo Giorgi’s Gingko lamp, inspired by the fan-shaped leaves of the endangered maidenhair tree. Folds of 9-ct gold extend from the centre of each earring like the veins of leaves radiating from the focal point of a gingko leaf blade. In the spirit of multitasking, you’ll be nodding both to Italian furniture design and horticulture, when you sport them.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Sunnei
25 July
There’s a gungey glamour behind Sunnei’s A/W 2019 hoop earrings. Rubber abounded in the Milan label’s sophomore womenswear outing (the brand debuted as a menswear label in 2014) – which featured bright patterned cagoules, Bermuda shorts and denim cargo trousers – paired with stacked platform sandals and plimsolls. But it wasn’t just the shoes which were rubberised. In a contemporary twist on the classic hoop earring, chunky curves of gold and silver metal were partly rubberised by hand in hues of maroon, navy and neon green. We’re stuck to the slime like effect of these hoops, dangling with acid hued rubber which appears in danger of dripping from the ear. We might just invest in those rubber platforms too.
Solange Azagury-Partridge
19 July
Something fishy is going on at Dover Street Market London. As part of its seasonal changeover, which sees a swathe of new installations, designer section set-ups and brands, Solange Azagury-Partridge’s high jewellery pieces are available to purchase exclusively. We’ve long had a sweet spot for the London-based jeweller’s pieces, which include humorous chunky rings resembling a desk calendar and doodle-inspired earrings drenched in colourful lacquer. There’s an underwater élan behind this Lapis Lazuli ring, which features a Malachite fish swimming towards a patch of coral. It’s a wearable, under-the-sea’s-surface world.
Kavant & Sharart
18 July
Partners in business and life Nuttapon Yongkiettakul and Shar-Linn Liew are making waves with their eponymous jewellery brand’s ‘Talay’ collection. This summer, whether we’re poolside or simply wishing for calming waters, we’ll be making a splash with this ’Dancing Wave’ ring, which undulates around the finger like water breaking on the shore. The folds of the ring are lined with diamonds, evoking a rolling wave glinting in the sunlight.
Benjamin Hawkins
15 July
A symbol of determination and metamorphosis, the moth is a fitting motif for Sarabande, the Foundation set up by Lee Alexander McQueen in support of pioneering artists and designers. The original death head moths inspired McQueen in their unfaltering journey towards the light and became a recurring theme in his work. Now, jeweller and former Sarabande studio resident Benjamin Hawkins has reinterpreted the motif to raise funds for the charity, recasting its lines in recycled sterling silver from his London atelier. The pin will be presented in the Sarabande matchbox, and available to buy from the Sarabande Foundation from 22 July. It will subsequently be available at the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair from 13-18 September.
Writer: Hannah Silver
Shinta Nakajima
12 July
Artist and silversmith Shinta Nakajima looks to organic plant forms when creating his designs, which include ornaments and vessels, like a series of hammered silver and glass drinking flasks inspired by seed pods and a hollow silver objet in the shape of a mango. It’s a fruitful collaboration, then, that Nakajima has teamed up with American Express on an immersive event celebrating the launch of its newest Metal Platinum Card in London. The show also features a series of floral sculptures by florist Mary Lennox, and a dinner designed by chef Nuno Mendes. Here, a series of Nakajima’s works are displayed, including this 2016 silver vase, which has a tactile surface inspired by kiwis. Shinta has been in residence at the Sarabande Foundation’s studios in Haggerston since October 2018, and the event acts as precursor to the Sarabande’s collaboration with LAPADA Art and Antiques Fair, taking place in London’s Berkeley Square in Septmember, where Nakajima’s works will be displayed.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
Roberto Coin
11 July
In the last two decades, Roberto Coin’s plethora of collections have grown to each encompass their own distinctive identities, united only in the small ruby hidden inside every piece. This Black Jade necklace is typical of the brand’s aesthetic, in adding a surprising quirk to an otherwise traditional design. A simple amalgamation of black jade with green agate and white quartz is gently distorted by an eccentric gem placement, tapping into the asymmetric trend for a pleasingly off-kilter finish.
Writer: Hannah Silver
CLED Jewellery
10 July
From shells to recycled silver, upcyled materials are being used by a plethora of jewellery brands, to allow them to work with a more sustainable output. Less than 35% of glass bottles are recycled in the United States, so in a bid to prevent more waste entering landfill, eco-conscious LA-based label CLED is working to incorporate colourful gems of discard glass into its designs. Salvaging glass bottles from local restaurants, CLED use a process of purifying, cutting, heating and annealing to create globules of glass which hang from barrettes, earrings, rings and necklaces.
Writer: Laura Hawkins
David Yurman
27 June
David Yurman’s fascination with the pearl – which began in 2005 with the Orbit collection – has now developed into a celebration of the sphere. New pieces in the Solari collection are deceptively simple, intertwining the familiar coil of gold, hand-twisted from a piece of wire, with a plethora of round gems. Freshwater pearls, cabochon white moonstones and vivid cabochon turquoise add a simplicity to rings, necklaces and bracelets which let the sculptural forms speak for themselves.
Writer: Hannah Silver