Tagged with 'Designers'

A stunning kaleidoscope of colour, gems and jewellery awaited visitors to this year's International Jewellery London exhibition. As well as catching up with some of the new trends for the Winter season to come, one of the highlights of London's leading annual jewellery event is in finding some creative and innovative collections by new designers.

IJL's Bright Young Gems initiative is now in its 8th year and gives a selection of exciting new designers a unique opportunity to showcase their work. Previous winners include Sophie Breitmeyer, with whom we launched a collection of Akoya pearl earrings and pendants last Autumn.

Chosen by a leading panel of judges, the winners of the award this year included watch-maker Sophie E Ellis, an original and playful collection by Neil Marlow and Swarovski award scholar Stephanie Bila. Impressively, three of the four winners recently graduated in Jewellery Design from the renowned Central Saint Martins design school in London.

Perhaps the most eye-catching of all was Katie Jamieson's Hidden collection, a beautifully series of architectural rings, pendants and earrings inspired by the secret garden inside the Serpentine Gallery's 2011 Summer Pavilion. These polished silver earrings (pictured) create a sparkling riot of colour with their central gemstones of tsavorite garnet and tanzanite, being surrounded by pink rubies, orange sapphires, yellow diamonds and more tsavorite garnets. Other pieces hid their gems away, to be revealed only with a movement of the hand or by sound. Designed with surprises, Katie Jamieson's jewellery succeeds in creating a collection to explore.

Elsewhere in the show, traditional design mixed with the contemporary and it was a great chance to catch up with new pieces from some favourite and established designers. Andrew Geoghegan's vibrant Chocolate Box Ring, set with baguette cut gems of aquamarine, amethyst and citrine was a perfect way to finish off the colour theme.

Looking ahead to what we will be seeing this later this year, pearls feature prominently in a number of the new Autumn fashion collections for Autumn-Winter 2012-13 (AW 2012).

Playing with the usual perception of pearls as purely classic gems, a number of this Autumn's collections came with a jewellery twist, most notably from leading New York-based designers Oscar de la Renta and Tory Burch. Rather than elegantly adorning the necklines and arms of the models on the catwalk, their designs were decorated and embellished with faux pearls and other gems.

Tory Burch revealed her AW 2012 ready-to-wear collection during February's New York Fashion Week. Evocative of a well-to-do girl who is “under the spell of the wrong kind of guy”, the collection is classical but a naughty sense of fun.

The designs are tailored and feminine with warming winter colours of beige, burgundy, blue and gold. The autumn fashion textures are beautifully varied with wool, tweed, lace, organza and leather. Pearls are prettily sewn onto the sleeves of a beige sweater or to outline the seams of a two piece jacket. Collars of wool and mesh are decorated with grosgrain ribbon and clusters of pearls.

Oscar de la Renta also approaches jewellery in a more unconventional manner. The new collection is lavished with ornamental jewels dangling from belts, buttons, ties, and shoes, and even being printed on fabric.

There is an abundance of pearls throughout, with round spherical pearls, dropped shaped pearls and mabe pearls featured on chandelier earrings, hairpins and brooches. These match beautifully with the colours of the collection, which are black, dark navy blues, pale pinks and light blues. The overall style is luxurious, even opulent.

The appeal of reworking the typical image of the pearl into these modern ready-to-wear collections is immediately successful and fits with some of the key autumn fashion trends.

With our own new jewellery collections underway, we can't wait to show you these designs later in the year.

There really was much for jewellery lovers to admire this week in London with London Jewellery Week underway, and a fabulous double opening of this year's Treasure and the Goldsmiths' Gold: Power and Allure exhibition at Somerset House. But our favourite show was at Central Saint Martins, where this year's graduating CSM students exhibited their work with 'Sorry for the Inconvenience, but We Are Trying to Change the World'.

This was the first year of degree shows since CSM moved to their new spectacular site at London's Kings Cross, a purpose built campus set around the frontage of an old Victorian goods interchange. The restored Granary building is quite stunning, with a historic brick frontage giving way to an industrial and modern interior space. All the college's disciplines have also been brought together under one roof for the first time and this week students from Fashion, Graphic, Ceramics, Textiles, Product Design and Jewellery showed off their work.

In the BA Jewellery 2012 show, we loved these pieces by Caroline Kernick. Inspired by 1920s French ballet and dance, a display of 5 highly intricate and elaborate necklaces, decorated with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, coral and pearls, immediately catches the eye. Look a little more closely and the surprising reality of the hand drawn designs and the material used becomes clear.

Each of the necklaces has been meticulously constructed from individual sheets of 270g dove-grey card, layered with gouache or fine drawing to recreate the impression of fine jewellery. Diamonds are presented with depth, dimension and light sources as if they were set. Even the seed pearls have been given a lacquered lustre and a characteristic flame effect has been added to the Melo melo and Conch pearls.

A Papier Gouaché DIAMOND AND MULTI-GEM PEARL NECKLACE

Designed as a necklace mimicking the scale and arrangements of the Ziegfeld Follies centralising three Melo paper-pearls and a Conch paper-pearl all surrounded by graduating impressions of coral beads, pink sapphires, zesty orange sapphires and South Sea paper-pearls. Finely rendered white diamonds suspend the central motif and lead to a multitude of paper-pearl strands. All gouache pigments individually applied with Kolinsky Sable brushes on 270g dove grey Maya-card, precisely 2012, 13 ½ ins

Amongst the other collections that impressed was a passionate collection, beautifully displayed with dripped blood-red wax, of yellow gold and red garnet jewellery by Qingqing (Sasha) Wu.

A set of luxury, handmade watches by Sophie E Ellis showed that some of the traditional skills are still respected. Impressively too, this was just the second time in the last 20 years that the intricacies of watch-making have (successfully) been attempted by a student.

The CSM degree shows are still open to the public until 21st June and, if you can visit, they are highly recommended and not inconvenient at all.

Europe's luxury jewellers unveiled their latest collections last week at Baselworld 2012, the biggest watch and jewellery event in the world.

Baselworld started as a watch fair and, now in its 40th year, is the premier luxury show for European retailers and brands alike. Over 100,000 exhibitors, visitors and press attended this year to announce new products and discover new trends. With nine Maserati sports cars parked enviably last week in a row outside the luxury watch Hall, our expectations were set high.

For any visitor to Baselworld, the show can remain a daunting one. Cavernous halls are filled with temporary structures of glass and marble that in some instances reach three stories high. Luxury watch brands such as Patek Phillipe, Rolex, Breguet and Chopard showcase their newest timepieces alongside jewellery creations from Fabergé, De Grisogono, and Mikimoto. The atmosphere is busy, but serious and hushed too. The success of the event here sets the tone for many in the watch and jewellery calendar.

If you are interested in the latest developments in jewellery then the prestige jewellers of Hall 2 or the specialist gemstone and pearl merchants of Hall 3 should be your first stop. The UK representation was low-key, with the stand-out for us being the characteristically edgy and spectacular designs of Stephen Webster.

Amongst the displays of the specialist pearl dealers, there were the first signs of the new larger nucleated Freshwater Edison pearls that are starting to emerge from China. This new type of pearl represents a real advancement in culturing technology, with Freshwater pearls starting to reach a size of as much as 15mm in diameter. There were a number of vivid pink strands on display, an amazing natural colour that is oddly striking when first seen. We will cover this type of pearl later in our Journal, but it will be very interesting to see how they are received over the coming year, particularly as their quality improves further.

Baselworld is scheduled slightly later next year from April 25 to May 2, 2013, due to the exhibition area being expanded, and is open to luxury-loving members of the public as well as retailers.

Some exciting news today of our first collection of designer jewellery!

Winterson, the online luxury brand specialising in pearl jewellery, and Sophie Breitmeyer, the award-winning young British jewellery designer, announce the launch of a colourful new collection of contemporary pearl earrings and pendants for 2011/12. The unique collection brings together two key trends with the combination of vibrant block gemstone colours and classic pearls.

Sophie Breitmeyer, a graduate of Central St Martins, was recently described by Vogue Italia as "a new talent to watch" and was previously a winner of the Bright Young Gems award in 2010. Since graduating, she has developed a strong following for her creative approach to design and her combinations of unusual stones and different coloured golds. Sophie recently collaborated on a catwalk collection with design duo Fyodor Golan, winners of the Fashion Fringe award at London Fashion Week this September, and has worked with Amber Le Bon on her collections.

The collection for Winterson is designed to be highly wearable for the daytime and for the evening. Three new jewellery designs for a pearl stud earring, a pearl drop earring and a pearl pendant combine colourful circles of gemstones such as pink rubies, blue sapphires and green tsavorite garnets to create nine individual pieces.

At the centre of each design is a classic Akoya Pearl, a white saltwater pearl that was one of the very first pearls to be cultured in Japan and is widely admired for its quality and lustre. The pearls are hand selected by Winterson for this collection, which is finished in 18 carat white gold and manufactured to the highest standards in Britain.

Starting at retail prices from £945, this new collection designed by Sophie Breitmeyer is exclusively available today from Winterson online.

Congratulations to Fyodor Golan and Sophie Breitmeyer for their recent success in Fashion Fringe 2011 at London Fashion Week!

Fashion Fringe is an annual competition to find young talented designers and help launch them onto the London fashion scene. Judged by a distinguished panel of industry professionals drawn from the creative, media and retail worlds of fashion, including Anne Pitcher of Selfridges, Claudia Schiffer and Roy Peach, of the London College of Fashion. The three finalists were asked to present their creative, and experimental, work at a tense Fashion Fringe catwalk event at Somerset House, London that took place as part of London Fashion Week this September.

The winner was Fyodor Golan, a design duo consisting of Fyodor Podgorny and Golan Frydman who met in London after studying at the prestigious schools of Istituto Marangoni, London and The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp. Previously working with Alexander McQueen, Raf Simmons, Richard Nichol and Issey Miyake, they launched their own label in 2010 fusing their imaginative approach with beautiful hand detailing, leather scarring and the manipulation of fabric.

For the Fashion Fringe catwalk, Fyodor Golan collaborated with Sophie Breitmeyer who designed four collars specifically for the show. These brass sculptures, detailed with petals and hummingbirds, mirror perfectly the complex patterns and weaves of the Fyodor Golan work.

The new collection of pearl jewellery designed by Sophie Breitmeyer will debut in the next few weeks. We can't wait to show you them.

London's international jewellery fair IJL 2011 took place this week, with a glittering array of gems and design talent. This four day event is a highlight of the year, with the season's new jewellery being showcased to trade buyers for the first time.

Pearls seemed to be as popular as ever this year with designers inspired by in fashion trends for modern vintage, hints of colourful gemstones such as rubies and Art Deco styling.

This beautiful ring named Enchanted caught our eye, with its sweep of diamonds giving way to a gorgeous Tahitian Pearl. It is designed by Andrew Geoghegan, an award winning designer of contemporary engagement rings based in the UK. If you like this, be sure to also have a look at his stunning fire opal Satellite cocktail ring, which won the Editor's Choice Award for Visual Impact at IJL.

Elsewhere in the show, it was good to see work by Fernando Jorge and Hattie Rickards being recognised in the Bright Young Gems gallery. Chosen by a panel of leading industry editors and experts including Hilary Alexander of The Daily Telegraph and Vivienne Becker of the FT’s How To Spend It, this initiative gives future design stars a prestigious platform to showcase their work.

Fernando Jorge's flowing and organic jewellery is highly sensual, using individually cut Brazilian stones to create his unusual and ambiguous pieces such as his Fluid Chandelier earrings.

Hattie Rickards studied jewellery design at Central Saint Martins before moving back from New York to launch her own brand. Her first collection features ethical gold, roughcut stones and spinning barrels of gems and, as with the pieces by Andrew Geoghegan and Fernando Jorge, also embodies forms of movement and kinetics.

These were just a few of the highlights for us. A great event this year with much to admire...

We are very excited to be working with Sophie Breitmeyer on our new range of designer pearl jewellery for this Autumn.

Sophie graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and, after having won a Goldsmiths Bursary in 2009, won a Bright Young Gems award in 2010, judged by Hilary Alexander of the Daily Telegraph, Vivienne Becker of FT's How to Spend it and Jessica Diamond of Wallpaper magazine. Since then her work has been featured in GQ and Vogue, as well as working with a number of established jewellery designers and brand names in the UK.

The inspiration behind Sophie Breitmeyer's own beautiful collections is drawn from looking at surface patterns and shapes within architecture and the flow and structure in dresses from fashion. With a great-grandfather who once was a diamond dealer at DeBeers, and later opened his own business in Hatton Garden in London, jewellery is part of the family heritage. Sophie complements each piece of her own designs with exotic precious stones. We love her signature ruffle style seen pictured above.

As well as her own work as a jewellery designer  Sophie, happily for us, has a keen interest in pearls:

"To make these new pieces for Winterson to be timeless meant not only being inspired by the new but also the old. Therefore as well as being influenced by current fashions for the use of block colour, the pearls that we have chosen for this collection are Japanese Akoya Pearls. These pearls are traditionally known for their fine quality and lustre and are a beautiful match for the gemstones that we have chosen: rubies, sapphires and tsavorite garnets.

In recent years the use of these iconic Japanese pearls has also been surpassed by the availability of Freshwater pearls from China. A lot of my influence with this collection was derived from the idea of bringing Akoya Pearls back to the forefront of jewellery design.

For this collection, which is made for Winterson in the UK, we have used the latest in design and jewellery manufacturing processes to ensure the highest quality finish possible for each piece."

Sophie Breitmeyer's collection of earrings and pendants will be available at Winterson early this Autumn.  Which one will be your favourite ?

One of the most popular areas on the Winterson website is our designer jewellery, where we showcase our new ranges of Winterson pearl jewellery designed in collaboration with talented established and up and coming jewellery designers.

We are very excited that the first of these ranges is now underway with Sophie Breitmeyer, who recently graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA in Jewellery design.

Her creative approach to combining unusual stones and different coloured gold led Sophie to be short listed for the 2010 Bright Young Gems competition judged by Hilary Alexander of the Daily Telegraph, Vivienne Becker of FT's How To Spend It and Jessica Diamond of Wallpaper magazine.

We asked Sophie about her inspiration, working with pearls and the new Winterson collection:

"As a jewellery designer I am inspired by the world around us and the way in which we have built and designed it. Both fashion and architecture have always interested me, in both the modern and traditional aspects. I often use these influences to inspire my collections' shape and form. Having been lucky enough to travel when I am not working, I find that a lot of influence and inspiration can come from the culture and craft that I have seen in other countries around the world.

Pearls are a very underrated precious stone, yet can often be one of the most exciting and dynamic. I have designed this collection as I design all of my work, with three things in mind, the finished piece must be unique, classic and desirable. These are what I believe every woman looks for when she buys or is bought a piece of jewellery.

I have taken my influences for this designer jewellery collection for Winterson from the current fashion season's use of block colour, being simple yet elegant. To make these pieces timeless meant not only being inspired by the new, but also the old."

We can't wait to show you the collection by Sophie Breitmeyer for Winterson in the Autumn.

London Jewellery Week starts in just over two weeks, a treasure trove and celebration of beautiful design and luxury jewellery. If you have not attended before, there is a range of events and activities showcasing emerging designers, studio drop-ins and hands on demonstrations.

Be sure to also visit Treasure, the flagship design exhibition that runs from 10th to 12th June. We'll be looking out for designs with pearls by Lilly Hastedt, Leyla Abdollahi and Natalia Schroder, a winner of Professional Jeweller's annual Treasure competition with her stunning pearl ring.

London Jewellery Week runs from 6th - 12th June and all the information on the best events can be found here.