Joyful new jewellery is part of an A/W20 collection at Dior Men that salutes the late stylist and accessories designer Judy Blame, who passed away two years ago. ‘It was important to pay respect to someone who inspired me,’ says Kim Jones, Dior Men’s artistic director. Blame’s work referenced punk, new romantic and rave culture, creating an art wholly his own. ‘What I admire most is that he could make something beautiful out of absolutely anything. We’ve replicated a lot of his work and Dior-ised it,’ continues Jones.
Blame’s fascination with the quotidian is translated into bold jewellery pieces that disregard standard proportions. Safety pins, a mainstay of his style, are recast in rhodium-finish brass and piled haphazardly onto rings; juxtaposed against tightly knit chains, the sharp geometric outlines emphasise the controlled chaos that defined Blame’s designs.
‘He was very tactile in the way he worked, just collecting and putting things together,’ says Yoon Ahn, Dior Men’s director of jewellery. She sifted through Blame’s collections of found objects – cap bottles, screwdrivers, a wrench, keys. ‘Even these seemingly mundane and disposable items can become decoration, and that’s the important part of the story,’ says Ahn. ‘Sometimes jewellery is purely self-expression.’
She has rethought archival pieces in tonal hues of grey and silver. Key chains and necklaces are a joyfully erratic clash of crystals, banknote charms and animal figures. Other pieces are softer: lustrous orbs of mother-of-pearl, set against sterling silver roses, are an elegant foil for the otherwise sharp silhouettes. In a brooch, pearls edged in white resin spell out ‘Dior’.
The dynamism of this collection is a loving retelling of Blame’s story. ‘I hope people can feel that energy and have fun wearing the jewellery,’ says Ahn. §