Most of you have been following our American Adventure in Las Vegas on Instagram (if not, now would be the time to follow theiofj account !) Other than that… This Year’s edition of the Couture Show was rich in terms of designs, brands, but also trends. Amongst the 240 brands exhibiting at the show we were «only » able to see 57 of them…
One trend we spotted everywhere is ENAMEL used in a variety of ways. To start, Nikos Koulis actually won a prize for his Transparent Enamel high jewelry, a technique he patented. Alison Lou who had been using colored enamel for years kept her DNA going with studs, hoops and signet rings. Our beloved Selim Mouzannar contrasted the flat enamel texture with the roundness of white pearls and diamonds while Brooke Gregson carved the gold underneath to give texture to the enamel and last but not least, Noor Fares has played on layering painting the enamel on mother of pearl.
Moving on to the second big trend of the show : we spotted a lot of gold textures. As a matter of fact, Eleuterio, one of the very last Portuguese brand expert on filigree exhibited for the first time at the show. A true demonstration of their savoir-faire. Arman Sarkysian, the Armenian designer based in LA unveiled a new series of locket pendants with precious stones set on hammered gold (his signature to tell you the truth) Vram who was debuting at Couture and won a prize for it introduced his Echo Ring in solid 18 ct gold and Eugenie Niarkos founder of Venyx polarized our attention with her solar pendant made of brushed gold sprinkled with colored stones.
Rough or polished, solid or translucent green. Emeralds have been everywhere in the last few years. Antonini nestled a faceted emerald in the heart of their ring inspired by Anish Kapoor. Kavant and Sharart set pear shaped emerald in their iconic origami earrings set with baguette cut diamonds. Astonishing ! And the Brazilian Moritz Glitz whose signature is to encapsulate hundreds of fractions of stones inside his pieces used emerald for his latest bracelet.
When it comes to discovering stones you have never heard of – Andrea Fohrman is on the top of our list. Spotting them in Tucson during the gem and jewellery show, this year she found rainbow hematites stones as if they were sprinkled with glitter. Fernando Jorge went back to his Brazilian roots and roads to find one of the rare artisans in the world who knows how to work on vegetal ivory called Tagus Seed The result is flabbergasting. Another example is Yael Sonia who sets her reverse earrings with amazonites or rutilated quartz.
As always, Las Vegas is our rendezvous where we are super excited to see our jewelry friends and brands we work with all year long ! It’s always such a pleasure to see our sweet Melissa Kaye, the crazy creative Elie Top who showed his Dame du Lac collection ; Lito who came up with new colored stones for her Treasure Box collection ; Suzanne Kalan who keeps on mesmerizing us with her fireworks baguette diamond settings ; Eva Fehren who – this year won the prize for the best engagement rings : they are modern, unique and rock or Gaia Spallanzani who brings with her smile her Italian jewelry DNA ! We were also super happy to discover talented designers such as Karma El Khalil who loves texture and working on negative spaces, Banshali who is based of LA and sets stones within a stone for a wow effect. Lisa B. whose full name is unpronounceable mixes modern craftsmanship with a gothic style kind of Game of Thronesque. Shifting on a 180° style angle, we love the fluidity and lightness of Kimmeye’s design but specifically her rings…
I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Stay tuned for more infos…
