Attention to detail is a point of pride for this Geneva-based designer, who evokes both contemporary and antique vibes with her jewels.
The grandeur of royal and noble jewels echoes through Nadia Morgenthaler’s creations even as she pushes design and technological boundaries with her cutting-edge style.
“I use ancestral know-how combined with 21st-century technologies to go through my ideas,” says the designer and goldsmith, who in 2009 took over the high-jewelry atelier where she had worked for many years in Geneva, Switzerland. “I do not have a technical limit.”
Ode to technique
Combining precious metals — often gold with naturally blackened silver — gives Morgenthaler’s jewelry designs an antique look. But this approach comes with its own challenges.
“It is much more complicated to work with this mixture of metals, because the merger points are very different, and metal tensions bring deformation problems [that are] difficult to master,” she explains.
Morgenthaler overcomes this and other technical hurdles to complete her pieces to the highest quality standards, including parts invisible to the naked eye. While the customer may not see these details, they contribute to the aesthetic of the piece — for instance, making the metal appear thinner.
Wearability is of paramount importance to Morgenthaler. “I pay very close attention to the comfort of my jewels. I only want to create pieces I will be able to wear easily,” she says. “I pay great attention [to ensuring] that my jewelry has a perfect position on the person and highlights the face. I put myself in the place of women who will spend a wonderful evening with my earrings.”
The Swiss factor
There is no particular Swiss aesthetic influence in the designer’s creations, which tend to center on rings and earrings with a contemporary style that also evokes aristocratic prestige.
“I am much more inspired by metal constructions and Belle Epoque architecture in Paris, or by the majestic buildings of Venice, with — in addition — something of the magnificence of the Maharajas,” she says.
Her Swiss heritage is much more apparent in her personality, including her extreme attention to detail. “The customer feels that I am completely devoted to the piece I create. Nothing is left to chance, and you feel it in my jewelry.”
Humility and discretion are also among the typically Swiss traits she observes in herself. “I’m very discreet about my activities and my clients, and that’s what my clients like,” she says.
Online exclusivity
Morgenthaler has been accepted as part of luxury e-commerce site Net-a-Porter’s Extremely Important Person (EIP) membership scheme, which makes her emblematic jewels — mostly earrings accompanied by a pendant and a ring — available to these select customers.
“I like the fact that the scheme is accessible only by private access and stays discreet,” she says. “The presentation of the pieces is very well done, and the team works both online and offline by traveling to meet customers, which combines the digital and human-contact worlds.”
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