Step inside Glenn Spiro’s sumptuous new London jewellery showroom

Glenn Spiro has impeccable taste, with an eponymous jewellery brand – at the intersection of art, jewellery and design – celebrating unique avant-garde silhouettes and unexpected materials. It is no surprise, then, that the London boutique is a haven of eclectic style, uniting antiques with bespoke pieces and curating an intimate, welcoming atmosphere.

Glenn and son Joe Spiro worked on the space, at 26 Bruton Street in Mayfair, with Venezuelan designer Valerie Name Bolaño, who takes Wallpaper* behind the design…

Wallpaper*: Where did you begin in translating the richness of Glenn Spiro jewels into a new atelier?

Valerie Name Bolaño: I began by researching the building and understanding its history and context. It was once the atelier of Sir Norman Hartnell, where Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret would have their gowns custom-made. Looking through archival imagery of how the space was used, and seeing the gestures within the original interiors, made me want to preserve some of that essence, but reinterpret it in a contemporary way that would represent the language of the house.

Glenn and Joe's pieces have this extraordinary richness and intricacy. They have an incredible talent for finding rare antique stones and unusual elements and transforming them into these intimate objects. I didn't want the space to compete with that, or to feel like a conventional jewellery boutique of course. Timelessness was essential.

Instead, the idea was to create an intimate salon, somewhere you could have tea and a conversation. The materials and objects are layered and collected. We designed some pieces specifically for the space, but we also sourced antiques and objects of curiosity so that it didn't feel as though everything had arrived at once.

Much like the jewellery, there is a sense of discovery. You don't necessarily see everything immediately. There is preciousness, but also intimacy and a certain slowness to how the space reveals itself.

W*: There is a wealth of materials and textiles here. What especially were you drawn to incorporating?

VNB: I was very drawn to materials with depth, things that become more interesting and beautiful the closer you get to them.

The materials needed to have richness, but they also needed to remain quiet enough to allow the jewellery to speak. We used heavy weaves, cast glass, antiqued metals, stone and beautiful woods – materials with texture and irregularity that absorb and reflect light in different ways.

We also created what we call the Green Room, with a vision of quite literally walking into a Glenn Spiro Jewel box. So we translated that very recognisable object into an entire room: dark, intimate and enveloping, with only a few carefully placed spotlights illuminating what matters.

It houses a special display of new pieces and gives clients somewhere private to try on the jewellery, sit down and have a conversation with the designers. I love that something as small and personal as the jewellery box became the starting point for an entire spatial experience.

W*: What aesthetic and atmosphere was it key for you to cultivate? What are you proudest of here?

VNB: I wanted it to feel residential, intimate, sensual and slightly unexpected, more like a conceptual living room, surrounded by layers of memories and objects collected over many years.

Nothing is there simply to announce itself. You discover the materials, the objects and eventually the jewellery in layers. Much of the atelier follows a monochromatic palette of creams, which we felt would create a beautiful, quiet canvas for Glenn and Joe's creations. Against it, individual objects and materials are allowed to speak.

What I am proudest of is perhaps that balance. The space has a very distinct identity of its own, but ultimately it knows when to disappear and allow the jewels to become the protagonist.

There are also much more subtle connections between their world and mine throughout the atelier. I often begin projects by having conversations with clients about the symbols, objects or memories that carry meaning for them, and then finding ways of translating those into architectural or decorative details.

For example, [my studio’s] signature ceramic buttons were reimagined here using a motif taken from the materials of the Old World Collection. We cast it in bronze and incorporated it into pieces of furniture almost as though the furniture itself were wearing jewellery.

I loved that exchange of scale: taking their language of jewellery and allowing it to become part of the furniture and the room. It became a way of quietly weaving Glenn Spiro's world into mine.

Glenn Spiro's boutique at 26 Bruton Street, London W1J 6QL

glennspiro.com