‘We were looking this season at glitches in the systems and dramas that dominate modern British life,’ says Completedworks founder Anna Jewsbury. ‘Somewhere between tradition and the destruction of tradition. So you’ll see classic shapes like a tennis bracelet but broken down, set, offset and reset.’
It is an offbeat philosophy encapsulated in a new collection and photo essay, photographed by Charlotte Hadden, which explores the beauty in our contemporary existence. Chaos and colour intertwine in scenes from a modern metropolis. Bunches of pearls coiled around the finger make for a chic McDonald’s moment; noodles and a necklace of juxtaposed diamond cuts are a perfect partnership; sculptural gold threads embracing the earlobe bring a moment of calm in a crowd.
‘We wanted the accompanying photo essay to reflect the mood of the whole collection,’ Jewsbury adds. ‘When you create a collection you sometimes have a very specific idea in mind of the accompanying world that gives context to the pieces. We wanted the images to somehow touch on the inherent beauty and absurdity of our contemporary existence in and around some of London’s most culturally saturated districts. Because glitches in a world of identikit spaces, of sameness and staleness, should be taken out of context and celebrated.’
The new pieces in the collection encompass Completedworks’ distinctive aesthetic of rippling metals – ‘although this time it is clashed rather than scrunched’ – and pearls that form sculptural swirls.
‘With every collection, there are certain moods or styles that we come back to each time but always with a slight variation or development from what has come before. I really like the sense that the collections speak to each other in this way. Our challenges are usually to do with how much time we need to take with experimentation. It can sometimes take up to a year to get something right. And then [there is] our ongoing challenge that we’re always thinking about, which is trying to challenge consumerism in our design process, as well as trying to push the boundaries of what responsibly sourced materials can achieve.’
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