With her sophomore accessories collection (pictured above) currently in stores we quizzed Marnie Skillings collaborator, COFA alumni and Gala Curios head designer Jasmine O’Loughlin-Glover on her top five jewellery designers of all time, including one mustachioed surrealist who, it may surprise you to learn, dabbled in the fine art of jewllery design. Take it away Jasmine.
I always hated jewellery as child because most of it seemed so bland…like those signet rings with the little stone where the range extends to one heart or two. Then I began studying the craft of jewellery making at design school and along the way discovered some outrageous jewellery designers who have really inspired my work.
Here are my all time top five favourites:
Tom Binns
This guy is the master of modern fashion jewellery. He began way back, collaborating with Vivienne Westwood and constructing jewellery out of little more than safety pins, forks…you name it. These days he assembles
layers and layers of pearls, vintage brooches and whatever he can get his hands on, into huge, chunky necklaces that look like an old dame’s jewellery cabinet bursting at the seams. Genius!
Delfina Delettrez
As a Fendi descendant and daughter to a very famous jeweller, Bernard Delettrez, Delfina got her start in fashion jewellery young. Each piece she creates is like a miniature fairy tale – a dark one, filled with googly eyes, spider webs and jewel-encrusted skulls.
Victoire de Castellane (designer for Dior Haute Joaillerie)
Victoire is a blue blooded Parisian who trained in the accessories department at Chanel under Mr K. Largerfeld, before being offered her own line of fine jewellery at Dior. She does a wonderful thing whereby she creates decadent, outrageously expensive fine jewellery, which is so playful it resembles costume jewellery. And that is her trick – making the expensive look cheap and vice versa, just like Chanel. For anyone who’s interested, here is an example of the amount of work that goes into creating just one ring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv7scxtVDuY
Hanna Bernhard
People who know my own jewellery will know like I my jewels big, which brings me to Hanna Bernhard. She creates giant, glittering animals mainly out of gems and crystals, and when I say giant, I am talking about 30cm in length. That’s right, enough to break an ear off, so it’s a good thing they mostly exist as brooches or necklaces.
Salvador Dali
His jewellery is not that widely known but it is incredible! It’s like his paintings have been brought to life, except better…diamonte-studded lips with pearls for teeth, you get the picture. I love the way he managed to find so many creative outlets for his wild imagination, and am very glad he chose jewellery as one of them.
