The prestigious & industry must-read-NOW Basel issue of the FT Watches & Jewellery report this week features Jewellery Week in the article by FT & Financial Times How To Spend It regular, Avril Groom
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For the 5th consecutive year, London town celebrates baubles and more baubles for the city’s hottest talents in the world of jewellery!
Jewellery Week is packed full of events open to everyone, shows and exclusive launches from some of the biggest names in jewellery.
Treasure 2013, London’s visionary jewellery show, is the best place to purchase the most beautiful, exciting and vibrant contemporary jewellery anywhere in the UK
Watch this space for updates for the VIP launch and events.
18-carat pink gold Cage diamond ring is featured in the current issue of highest circulation bridal magazine, You & Your Wedding
Our youngest client on our books right now is skilled fine jewellery designer, LestieLee . Winner of the prize for Designer of the Year at Treasure, London Jewellery Week in June, just one year after setting up her label. Her geometric-style fine gem collections have been inspired by her eastern heritage and upbringing in both Hong Kong and London. She has just returned from New York at the International Gift Fair and is due to show at the international jewellery fair Inorghenta next month.
What a week, what a lot of networking, bumping into old industry faces, meeting new industry blood, talking (jewellery) shop and a dishing out many a card. Let’s not mention the state of the liver….
Last week London was a truly golden city bedecked in glitter ‘n’ baubles for Jewellery Week 2012. Taking place at Somerset House with the launch at the Mayfair Hotel the night before, I was a true fixture at the fabulous, palacial setting in London’s WC2, walking the aisles bumping into so many old faces.
The party at the actual launch was bursting at the seams and the atmosphere was indeed sparkling, with not too many a sober face…The day-times consisted of ogling the creations and chatting to so many of the young creatives in the industry who I have now been bumping into since the first London Jewellery Week 5 years ago, each evolving with credible collections, Joanna Dahdah, Jessica de Lotz to name a few.
My wonderful client, LestieLee won the prize for Designer of the Year at Treasure which was amazing, and means she gets next year’s show for free!
Streams of potential new clients and press kept appearing at Lestie’s stand, really appreciating the craftsmanship and delicate, ultra feminine, truly wearable designs in her hand-made collections.
I seriously think the wearability-factor of Lestie’s gems are what shone, from the competition.
Professional Jeweller went live today with another installment by Yours Truly
Style Bible has featured another piece, this time on Swarovski, for London Jewellery Week
Swarovski Gems 2011 launches this week across the globe.. Approaching the HQ, I feel like I should be wearing an entirely new wardrobe. As in, in a perfect world, I would have bought the whole outfit yesterday. You know one of those truly urban moments, when you feel just a little bit six seasons ago? The handbag – which has gone down a treat at every event over the past three years – feels, well, a full three years old and shabby chic it ain’t.
It is day 2 of London Jewellery Week 2010. The sun is out – between downpours – and I have just arrived at the Swarovski Headquarters in Piccadilly. The white, ultra clinical yet elegant interior is sparkling. A waiter serves the prerequisite soft drink du jour, elderflower cordial, as I am led into a slick, stark boardroom that would fit perfectly in a scene in Ugly Betty.
Dr Birgit Rieder is Head of Gem Creative in Wattens, Austria, where Daniel Swarovski created his empire in 1895.
Dr Rieder’s presentation is, excuse the pun, absolutely flawless. She truly inspired me with her understanding of the power of these man-made zirconia gemstones, from (I think) one of the most powerful brands in the world today.
What fascinates me the most, is the importance the team gives to trend agencies and the evolution of trends. For Swarovski, it is not what’s ‘in right now’ that is important, but what the consumer genuinely wants, in all of her mood swings. As Rieder so rightly declared, ‘I wore a big cocktail ring yesterday and today, I’m wearing a more refined piece of jewellery’. Different days, different persona. She’s right, what we wear reflects our mood, as well as the zeitgeist. It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her tune, some every three minutes, but that’s for another feature…
Swarovski Gems 2011 launches this week across the globe. The designers of the collection want the pieces to reflect the personality of the wearer. With the consumers of the world so varied, in a world that is so vast, women in various markets want a host of different accessories. Big players in the jewellery and design worlds have been invited to take the Swarovski gems and incorporate them into fascinating pieces, playing with the offering of delicious colours and colossal strength (almost as strong as diamonds) of each zirconia stone. The fact that they are not precious, is even more ingenious. Jewellers from some of the biggest fine jewellery brands in the world, have actually given their respect – and names – to the brand.
Swarovski’s vision is to unite the world and work together, rather than fighting each other, very 2011. The brand speaks to all nations, empathising with the rainbow of customs, cultures and tastes. Rieder goes on to say that with the power of the web, our sense of wonder has dissolved somewhat. However, the sense of amazement we each get from nature is still just as fresh. We are actually appreciating natural beauty so much more in fact. Many of the collections feature shapes from the natural world; flowers and insects are plentiful.
Swarovski Gems is the ‘product brand for Swarovski’s genuine gemstones & created stones’. These Gems inspire some of the most talented minds in the fine jewellery industry to create pieces from their wildest dreams.
My by-line is up and hopefully this will last longer than the requisite 15 minutes.
Am published, am loving it, and am on a roll. Style Bible posted my piece on the School of Life and I love the fact that a dinner I attended, after having read about it in the press (Telegraph Magazine) lead to a feature.
I am covering London Jewellery Week for Style Bible this week – so get the bubbly and gems merging into a lucid couple of words please.
‘What is your most surprising fear, and where does it come from?’ was up for discussion during the first course.
A welcome cocktail had been thrust my way just moments ago, as I apprehensively joined a table of strangers who were sharing their views on the various aphorisms, or amuse-bouches, which were printed on laminated cards. Guests were under strict rules to focus on what was written on the cards, rather than veer towards predictable topics, such as the nightmare tube journey to the restaurant or the weather!
To admit that I am a sucker for novelties in the world of networking, would be an understatement, however this dinner retained my attention – and that of my fellow guests – until long after the coffees had been served. Chair-swapping between each course was encouraged, so as to mingle with as many people in the room. The delicious dessert course culminated in the newly formed group pontificating on, ‘how will our culture change in the next 100 years?’
I was at a Conversation Dinner, a regular on the curriculum at The School of Life. Established in 2008, The School was founded by Alain de Botton and Sophie Howarth (former curator of the Tate Modern), offering programmes for grown-ups who are instinctively curious, enjoy the process of thought and relish stimulating conversation. The founders’ intention was to create a modern-day apothecary for ‘pupils’ to come to be treated for common ailments of our zeitgeist, ie. jobs, relationships, personal philosophical dilemmas and so on. The School is based in Bloomsbury, with a retail space bursting with an inspirational offering of literature and prose.
De Botton and Howarth are no strangers to the power of words, concluding that in adulthood, our thirst for learning must be regularly quenched. Random yet like-minded strangers are offered a programme of Conversation Dinners, secular ‘Sunday Sermons’, Evening Classes, the Breakfast Club (sessions run weekdays for an hour, 7:30am) and Weekends (in London and outside). The Sunday Sermons were launched with the following in mind, ‘in the old days most of us looked to religion for direction on how to live. Now we flick through the Sunday papers or surf the net, finding little by way of good counsel’. Workshops include, ‘How To Be A Good Friend’, ‘How To Be Cool’, ‘How Necessary is a Relationship?’, ‘How To Have Better Conversations’, ‘How To Be Alone’, ‘How To Make a Difference’. The evening classes are led by VIP guest speakers, with a maximum of 30 per class, for people with busy lifestyles to meet new people, enjoy, relax and unwind, with wine and a bite.
Current Director Morgwn Rimel, (during Howarth’s maternity leave), says, ‘we forget to feed our soul at the weekend, turn your off-time into on-time…we have forgotten how to be free….we need to embrace our creativity in spite of how accomplished we are’. She is currently organising summer ‘play weekends’ where students are invited ‘to be more judgemental with yourselves, open up a little more’. One idea is a full day of urban gardening, a ‘taste voyage of epicuriosity’ headed by Tom Hodgkinson, of ‘The Idler’.
The ratio of women to men is usually 70:30 for the evening classes, while the monthly sermons are 50:50, with 400-500 people attending.
The School of Life is a nutritious chicken soup for the soul of the Noughties. In a refreshing take on the world which in no way preaches, the School advises us to grab a brief moment out of our daily schedule and re-awaken our dormant minds. In these times of increasing uncertainty, punters are offered a menu of programmes that curate ideas and process them, in a manner which is intelligent, thought–provoking and far from laden with psycho-babble. And Stylebible can whole heartedly reccomend that you give this new found way of thinking a go – who knows what you might come away with?
