BLACK JEWELLERY DESIGNERS GIVEN A CHANCE TO SHINE
SOTHEBY’S premiered the first exhibition exclusively featuring black jewellery designers on Friday, followed by a sale that runs in person and online until October 10.
The sale will be a watershed – and many would say long-overdue – moment for the industry, elevating 21 black jewellery designers to a global stage for the first time. Brilliant & Black: A Jewelry Renaissance features 63 works, including designers’ signature pieces and custom creations.
The exhibition is the brainchild of black jewellery author, editor and stylist Melanie Grant, who was galvanised by the Black Lives Matter movement to find a way to make a difference in the jewellery world.
Last year, during her conversations with black jewellery designers, many expressed sadness that despite the social and political changes in the world, nothing would change in the jewellery industry. Doors would remain closed, it would be difficult for them to progress financially, and the top level of collectors would remain out of reach.
“There’s an extra level of challenge, I think, especially as a black designer at the high level of the industry,” Grant says. “If you’re trying to get into high jewellery, it’s a pretty impenetrable space from the outside.”
The barrier of entry is much lower in fashion jewellery, where pieces are typically made of brass or aluminium and feature synthetic stones instead of precious metals and natural gemstones. Fine jewellery, crafted from 14 carat or 18ct gold and natural and synthetic gemstones, is where a lot of the black designers operate.
The pinnacle of the jewellery industry is high jewellery. The one-ofa-kind pieces are rendered in 18ct gold or platinum and feature massive and ultra-rare natural gemstones. They seldom hit stores. Instead, they're shown in a rarefied, secret world in private rooms to a brand’s top collectors, or in extravagant parties.
The names of high jewellery houses are old and mainly French, such as Boucheron, Cartier, Piaget, and Van Cleef & Arpels. It’s a very difficult and expensive world to break into because designing high jewellery requires a lot of capital. Designers must first buy the gemstones, which can run from five to six figures for a stone, and the funds remain tied up until a piece sells..
Grant uses her reputation and contacts to break open the closed doors and introduce the best black jewellery designers to the world’s top-level jewellery collectors. The access would allow them to flex their creative muscle and design expensive pieces of high jewellery, knowing they would be connected with the clients who buy sixfigure pieces
She approached Frank Everett, Sotheby’s director of jewellery, initially thinking that Sotheby’s would “laugh me out of the conversation”. But Everett was instantly on board.
The exhibiting designers include top black jewellery makers as well as historic jewellers Art Smith and Winifred Mason Chenet. (Chenet is thought to be the first commercial black jeweller in the US.)
For Vania Leles, gemologist and founder of London high jewellry brand Vanleles, it’s full-circle. Before launching her collection a decade ago, she worked at Sotheby’s London. While she’s thrilled to be part of the exhibit, she calls the moment bitter-sweet because it has taken this long for black designers’ work to be recognised.
“Our work and our talent and creativity speaks for itself,” she says. “But it’s the support we have very much needed. It’s a dream come true.”
Catherine Sarr, the founder of Almasika, agrees. “It’s really an honour to have my collection among so many talented designers.”
The impact that the exhibit can have on the careers of these designers has begun.
Superstar Rihanna wore Thelma West Diamond’s Rebel Black Ring on the red carpet at the Met Gala, arguably the most important night in the fashion industry. The ring features a 5.01ct pear-shaped D-colour diamond and is priced at $400 000 (about R5.9 million).
The Brilliant and Black: a Jewelry Renaissance exhibition is open to the public until September 26 at Sotheby’s New York.
The sale runs in person and online until October 10. |