We're entranced by Hedi Slimane's covetable crystals
Celine's take on crystals hosts myriad references, modern and ancient
Adam Barclay - Photography
Hedi Slimane has brought a rock ‘n' roll edge to jewellery since beginning his tenure at Celine, playing with oversized silhouettes and artistic references for chic jewels. In past collections, his flirtation with gleaming textured gold made for bold chains – now, he builds on these foundations for adornments which imbue precious materials with a new spiriutality.
Rich in spiritual references and supposedly endowed with health benefits, crystals have long held the human race bewitched, and now Hedi Slimane has fallen under their spell with the Les Cristaux Celine collection which intertwines jewels in historicity. The crystals, beautiful in their raw geometry, teeter on circles of gold-finished brass. On a cuff, a crystal of rutilated quartz is held suspended, seemingly untethered. Nicknamed Angel Hair, it was rumoured to have been created by the Gods themselves.
On a ring, a sheaf of pyrite – more colloquially known as fool’s gold and which once enthralled the Incas with its alluring glow – is haphazardly placed, cutting a striking architectural silhouette. In a necklace of star mica, the honey-hued stone commonly used by alechemists as a substitute for gold powder, floats in its circle of brass and makes for a tantalising talisman.
INFORMATION
This article originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of Wallpaper* (W*257); download the latest issue for free here
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Hannah Silver is the Art, Culture, Watches & Jewellery Editor of Wallpaper*. Since joining in 2019, she has overseen offbeat art trends and conducted in-depth profiles, as well as writing and commissioning extensively across the worlds of culture and luxury. She enjoys travelling, visiting artists' studios and viewing exhibitions around the world, and has interviewed artists and designers including Maggi Hambling, William Kentridge, Jonathan Anderson, Chantal Joffe, Lubaina Himid, Tilda Swinton and Mickalene Thomas.
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