Fernando Jorge
Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2010, Fernando Jorge has enjoyed a meteoric rise to become one of the UK’s most illustrious jewellers. Worn by high-profile women such as Beyoncé and Michelle Obama, the Brazil-born designer’s jewels are renowned for their radiant energy and effortless sensuality. His latest collection, Flame, is, he says, concerned with “creating a sense of movement, dynamism and confidence”. His design process is “part emotion, part intuition, balanced by a rigorous process of refining my designs to their essence”. The setting of the pear-shaped diamonds in the Flame earrings makes them appear ready to take off from the ear and join the stars in the sky.
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Ana Khouri
With bold imagination, Ana Khouri rethinks how jewellery can adorn the body. At the sculptor-turned-jewellery designer’s exhibition at Phillips in London last month, large diamonds in mixed cuts danced around and dangled from every part of the ear, while necklaces sat off-centre with the spare but striking punctuation of neon-bright gems. “I love the challenge of bringing movement and wearability together to make something I haven’t seen before,” says the New York-based designer beloved by fashion editors and celebrities the world over. The soft drape of her diamond and emerald hair piece – which can also be worn as earrings and a rivière necklace – is the perfect union of high jewellery and casual elegance.
Alice Cicolini
Alice Cicolini is a creative polymath. Author, curator and jewellery designer, she reignited her childhood love of gems during her time as director of arts and culture for the British Council in India. Combine that with her MA in jewellery design at Central Saint Martins, exquisite colour sense and dedication to preserving ancient crafts from both East and West, and the result is contemporary jewellery with soul. The east London-based designer’s Totem stacking ring unites her love of colour with convertibility, and intricate pattern with sheer scale.
“The challenges are always in the details: matching the pattern, the colours of enamel and stone, the perfection in the way the three pieces slot together,” she says.
Read more: What You Need To Know Before Choosing An Antique Diamond
Nikos Koulis
“I’m always intrigued by taking a classic pillar from the past and redefining it with my own signature,” says Nikos Koulis. No wonder the Athens-based jeweller’s work is worn by women including the Duchess of Sussex and Scarlett Johansson. With his bestselling Oui collection, he succeeded in making art deco feel fresh. Now, with Feelings, he turns his attention to that mid-century staple, the snake chain. The challenge was to manipulate the gold into seemingly effortless curves and knots (the latter in homage to Greece’s maritime tradition) that hold their shape but retain softness and sensuality. Mission accomplished.
This article was originally published in the November 2019 issue of British Vogue.
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