One of the greatest things about creative types is that they tend to collaborate with other creative types, and in 2015 we have been treated to some spectacular gems that could only have been made through a meeting of minds.
One of the most historic fine jewellery collaborations of the past year was the teaming up of Tiffany & Co. with Dover Street Market for the Out of Retirement collection in November. This was the first time the Maison had ever entered into such a partnership with another business. The whimsical jewels revived from the Tiffany archives for this very special flash sale led to near-sell outs in the first few days at Dover Street Market’s stores in London, New York and Tokyo.
A month later, Bergdorf Goodman celebrated the opening of its new Jewelry Salon in New York by unveiling a collaboration with ethical gemstone miner Gemfields. The project led to more than 50 pieces of ruby and emerald jewellery being designed exclusively for the store by a who’s who list of contemporary jewellery designers, which included David Webb, Kimberly McDonald, Nikos Koulis, Stephen Webster and Sydney Evan.
The web was also abuzz with fine jewellery collaborations, the most sparkling of which was German jewellery house Cada’s project with luxury fashion e-tailer STYLEBOP to create one-of-a-kind jewels designed by artists including Aaron Curry, Andy Hope and Jonathan Messe. This collaboration, entitled Cada Goes Art, was the brainchild of the couples behind the two companies - STYLEBOP’s Mario and Thorsten Eimuth, and Cada’s Herbert and Annette Kopp. Together, they wanted to explore their mutual love of contemporary art, jewellery and fashion.
From within the jewellery world, new pairings led to exciting designs such as Jordan Askill’s yellow gold and diamond jewellery inspired by the Monarch and Karner butterflies for Georg Jensen, and Sarah Ho’s exclusive line of coloured gemstone cocktail rings for London retailer William & Son, which proved so successful that it will be extended into 2016.
There were also quite a few ethical jewellery collaborations in 2015. Theo Fennell teamed up with ethical diamond brand Forevermark for a collection of daring diamond jewellery sold at Harrods.
A quirky collaboration between Pippa Small and Rupert Wace, the renowned antiquities collector and dealer, on the Ancient Amulets collection, featuring real Egyptian and Roman artefacts. But perhaps the winner of the hottest and quirkiest collaboration of 2015 has to be Jessica de Lotz, who teamed up with Frame Chain, a trendy East London eyewear accessories brand, to create a solid silver chain fitted with her signature medallions, which can be used to keep your spectacles close at all times.
