These 16 up-and-coming creators were supposed to showcase their works for the first time at the Couture show’s Designer Atelier in Las Vegas. Here they share their stories, their influences, and the jewels they were most looking forward to presenting.
This is the second part of the article “Their chance to shine”. Click here for the first part.
LIZZIE MANDLER
Designer: Lizzie Mandler
Style: “Structural minimalism. My pieces are meant to be your favorite white T-shirt: comfortable, familiar, the perfect fit and a staple in your wardrobe.”
Jewelry career: “I designed my first piece of jewelry when I was 12, for my middle school graduation. After diving into beading and semi-precious jewelry for four years, I took a soft-wax carving class when I was 16 and never really looked back.”
Design icons: “Elsa Peretti was a huge influence on me growing up. My mom had several of her pieces, and they all seemed to have a certain flow to them. There is something about the lines in her work that are so calming to me.”
Sourcing: “I’m lucky enough to have developed some amazing relationships throughout the years with various diamond and gem dealers, many of which I’ve worked with since I was 16 — most of whom I only get to see twice a year (in Tucson and Vegas).”
Your planned Couture headliner: “I created a series of new cuffs with half-carat stones in them. The stones stagger so that when layered, they all stack and fit together, and when worn alone, the stones are off-center.”
Yasmim Passos (right)
LUCIANA YASMIN
Designers: Luciana Narciso and Yasmim Passos
Style: “A combination of our visual memory and interpretation of historic references such as curves, edges, color palettes from inspiring works of art, monuments and even nature.”
Jewelry career: “We began as friends who united their passion for/obsession with art and history to create wearable art. Our first pieces were made by our own hands in goldsmith classes in [Brazilian capital] Brasilia. After that, we graduated in jewelry design at the European Institute of Design in São Paulo. We are constantly drawing and experimenting with new techniques of art [in] our routine, and that has a great influence on our pieces.”
Design icons: “Fernando Jorge, Ara Vartanian, Ana Khouri and Silvia Furmanovich.”
Sourcing: “Today, most of our gemstones come from São Paulo. We choose each one personally and very carefully; we can say it’s one of our favorite parts of the process. Brazil is very abundant in terms of gems, so we are very privileged to have such a great variety of marvelous gems here.”
Your planned Couture headliner: “Our Venus ring. For us, it is an important symbol for the brand and what it represents. A combination of art and architecture translated into wearable art in its minimal details.”
MEREDITH YOUNG
Designer: Meredith Young
Style: “Built on opposed visual aesthetics: positive and negative space, historical forms and modern forms, the geometric and the organic. The resulting style is ethereal and provocative.”
Jewelry career: “My high school had a silversmithing program and art history program. I started making jewelry at age 16, learning to fuse fine silver and solder fairly complex architectural sterling silver boxes. At the same time, I became immersed in art history, which literally changed the way I saw the entire world. I planned to go back to art school for painting after going to college for art history, but instead I went for jewelry making.”
Design icons: “Alexander McQueen — his pieces were heavily researched, which allowed him to utilize historical fragments, subject matter and techniques but put them into a modern, edgy context — [and] Renee Lewis, who also fuses the past with the present. I was exposed to her work during the end of my college years. She utilized vintage diamonds and components. Her work propelled me to become a goldsmith.”
Sourcing: “I ask a lot of questions and get a lot of references. I support companies like Columbia Gems and Parle Gems, [which] make the mining and cutting process very transparent. The same is true for diamonds.”
Your planned Couture headliner: “My dot medallion in the Controlled Chaos collection. The combination of different-shaped diamonds and their resulting pattern creates an outward movement like the birth of a star.”
M.SPALTEN
Designer: Melissa Spalten
Style: “Playful, colorful, joyful.”
Jewelry career: “I started making beaded jewelry when I was about six years old. I studied retail merchandising in college, and realized around the time I was graduating that I was much more interested in designing things and making them than I was in the business side of things. So I moved to Los Angeles to study jewelry design at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM). There, I fell in love with fine jewelry design, and founded M.Spalten just after graduating.”
Design icons: “Tony Duquette, Victoire de Castellane, Lydia Courteille and Arunanshi.”
Sourcing: “I absolutely love opals. Their play of color is so captivating, each stone is like its own world. It’s really difficult to buy an opal without seeing it in person, so I source my opals in Tucson, [Arizona,] during the February gem shows.”
Your planned Couture headliner: “I was really looking forward to showing the expansion of my Gemdrop collection, which debuted last summer and has since become my bestseller.”
Natia Chkhartishvili.
NEVERNOT
Designers: Nina Dzhokhadze and Natia Chkhartishvili
Style: “Very colorful and very easy to wear, both during the day and during the nighttime.”
Jewelry career: “After many, many years in the jewelry and fashion industry, we have always wanted to create a brand that resonated with our style and [was also accessible at] fine-jewelry price points. The idea came in 2017, and since designing our first pieces, we’ve never stopped, and enjoy each day of working together.”
Design icons: Chkhartishvili picks Victoire de Castellane, Christian Dior’s creative director for fine jewelry, while Dzhokhadze says, “I really love Fernando Jorge pieces. He is a true talent, and each piece is like a work of art.”
Sourcing: “We make most of our pieces in our hometown, with our workshop in Tbilisi, Georgia, where Natia lives at the moment and oversees the production and design process. Many pieces we create are hand-enameled in London, United Kingdom.”
Your planned Couture headliner: “The Eye ring, which was designed and fresh from the workshop in March, would have been a new piece at Couture. We have decided to donate 100% of sales from the first ring [we sell] to nonprofit organizations.”
RENNA
Designer: Renna Brown-Taher
Style: “Easy elegance with a quirky twist.“
Jewelry career: “I started as an administrator at Sotheby’s American Art department, all the while finishing my gemology degree on the side, before moving to the jewelry department. Initially, I dabbled in costume jewelry before creating my signature gold shell collection inspired by a bracelet that my mother had made for me out of coffee bean shells — the most beautiful and meaningful piece of jewelry I own.”
Design icons: “James de Givenchy, who pushes the boundaries of what we expect to see in jewelry, rewriting the rules while still being elegant.”
Sourcing: “Our workshop works with a US-based company that does the whole recycling process, from start to finish, in-house. Before we purchase the gold, it is certified by an independent lab for purity.”
Your planned Couture headliner: “I was most excited to show everyone the intricate shells that we create. They are 360-degree works of art that we have worked so hard to perfect.”
SHIHARA
Designer: Yuta Ishihara
Style: “With minimal decorative elements, the unconventional yet functional structures seamlessly connect [with] the body to enhance beauty.”
Jewelry career: “I studied jewelry design in Tokyo, and in 2008 began designing and producing custom jewelry. In 2010, I established my jewelry brand Shihara.”
Design icons: “I’m a fan of functional design and tend to be drawn to things that have both a beautiful form and a functional purpose, where everything makes sense together.”
Sourcing: “The gold and diamonds of my jewels are all sourced from Japanese vendors.”
Your planned Couture headliner: “The Un-Signet Rough Diamond ring, based on the classic Shihara Signet ring style but incorporating a naturally octahedral uncut rough diamond that is set in such a way that allows all eight sides of the stone to be seen.”
WALTERS FAITH
Designers: Stephanie Abramow and Mollie Good
Style: “Bold jewelry that is classically modern yet simple, consisting of clean lines with an everyday wearability.”
Jewelry career: Good says, “Starting from college at the University of Michigan, I enrolled in metalsmithing classes and immediately fell in love with jewelry design and manufacturing. I expanded on my studies after college, attending the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), and after that I got the best [hands-on] education you can get working for Fred Leighton.”
Abramow says, “Mollie and I met when she hired me working for another fine jewelry brand. We overlapped for only six-plus months but formed a nice friendship and rapport. Years later, we decided to partner to create a collection of fine jewelry that is both accessible and wearable. Walters Faith is the combination of our middle names, showing just how personal this collection is to both of us.”
Design icons: “JAR, Taffin, Suzanne Belperron, Aerin Lauder.”
Favorite cuts: “Our favorite cut is a toss-up between round brilliants, emeralds and ovals. In the Walters Faith collection, we work with F- to G-color, VS-clarity goods, typically just melee. It’s when we do bespoke work and one-of-a-kind pieces that we love to get creative and design beautiful engagement rings, earrings or special-occasion pieces using larger, more important stones.”
Your planned Couture headliner: “We were most looking forward to introducing our newest Thoby collection to buyers. Thoby is an updated version of our Clive collection, which is inspired by architectural columns. As a brand, we love versatility, and the Thoby rings can be worn with the opening face-up to expose a glimpse of diamonds or face-down as a cigar band ring.”
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