For Misho founder Suhani Parekh, moving from jewellery design to ready-to-wear was an organic extension of her jewellery designed around the contours of the body.
‘I've always designed jewellery as architecture for the body,’ the jewellery designer says. ‘In fact, our very first few collections often included body jewellery, metallic corsets, and shoulder pieces. Life imitates art and art imitates life; I feel this is true to my approach to design. Over the two years of the pandemic, we focused on creating more minimal, meaningful pieces of jewellery. For instance, we launched the ‘Pebble Pods’, our first earrings designed for AirPods.’
Parekh builds on this inherent functionality with body pieces crafted in gold-plated bronze that string together sensual waterfalls of black onyx stones and red beads. ‘It feels like the perfect time to take a deep dive back into maximalism and bring more ambitious pieces to life,’ she says. ‘But whether it's a pair of sculptural earrings that hold your AirPods or a 22ct gold-plated metal bikini – in the end, we love creating pieces that make a statement.’
She builds on her training as a sculptor for these new pieces, which accentuate parts of the body usually overlooked in traditional jewellery design. Creating the body pieces came with its challenges, with the intricate mixes of delicate semi-precious stones adding a fragility to the process.
‘Sculpted bronze is a beautiful yet challenging metal,’ Parekh says. ‘It's always been associated with art and sculpture and we wanted to bring that quality to these pieces. Bronze is both hard and ductile, so it takes a lot of skill and time to craft it. However, this also means that it allows for both detail and consistency. As a piece of wearable art, it felt like the perfect material to create something that will stand the test of time, multiple wears, and never lose its form.’
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