Lifestyle
Fine Jewelry Designs Exhibit an Urban Flair
Imaginative ways of playing with light have long been one of jewelry’s key features, and several brands recently added a cool urban twist to that technique. Fine jewelry collections have been introduced with graphic looks that clearly were inspired by city architecture and echoed the signature geometry of Art Deco design.
When Chopard unveiled the latest additions to its Ice Cube collection in September, for example, the house’s marketing material described the pieces as “sculpted by light,” with gridlike patterns set onto gold rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces. Rows of tiny gold cubes, some punctuated with diamonds, evoked an evening cityscape twinkling with lights.
Caroline Scheufele, Chopard’s co-president and artistic director, said she took her cue from Bauhaus architecture and its focus on functionality and simplicity. “This minimalist aesthetic appealed to me through its highly graphic lines that use only the original elements, which are light, shape and resistant materials,” she wrote in an email.
And while geometric jewels have been trending for some time, her pieces appear to reflect a pared-back approach. “Minimalism is expressed as an art of living that involves choosing to safeguard essentials, meaning all that is precious and enduring rather than ephemeral,” she wrote. “Ice Cube jewelry embodies this desire to focus on that which is simple, pure, beautiful and lasting.”
The Ice Cube collection includes a variety of pieces, such as rings, hoop earrings, individual ear cuffs and bangles offered in a range of sizes, allowing the wearer to layer or stack pieces according to taste.
Molly Haylor, the style director at the British edition of Grazia magazine, said the size range reflects the architectural connections of the design trend. “The more adventurous you are with the different ways of stacking, the more exciting it will look and add an element of power to your outfit,” she said. “Because of the shapes and the way they’ve been molded, they all pick up light differently. It does recall the skyscrapers in iconic cities like New York and Chicago or even Tokyo.”
Recent collections at Louis Vuitton and Dior also highlighted graphic looks, notably playing with house design codes.
Louis Vuitton interpreted Damier, the checklike pattern first conceived more than 135 years ago for its trunks and that today adorns products ranging from its ready-to-wear styles to accessories. Now, the motif has found expression in Le Damier de Louis Vuitton fine jewelry collection, featuring diamonds in square settings juxtaposed with polished gold.
The rings are the collection’s most varied pieces, offered in 18-karat white or yellow gold, in different sizes and heights. “When you put them all together they’re like a Lego piece that builds this beautiful structure,” said Ms. Haylor, who added that a graphic, cuff look also could be achieved by stacking Le Damier’s tennis bracelet-inspired bangles.
At Dior, the feminine My Dior collection incorporated the maison’s signature cannage pattern, a lattice look seen on its handbags that is a nod to Christian Dior’s first fashion show. During that event in 1947 at Dior headquarters in Paris, guests sat on Napoleon III chairs with the mesh pattern, which now has made its way to My Dior’s line of rings, earrings and bracelets.
For each piece, the lattice of fine golden strands is created by hand, then a strip of mirror-polished gold is inserted behind the grid to create a play of light between the strands and the strip. (The light is enhanced even more by the diamonds set in some pieces). The collection debuted in September in 18-karat pink gold or white gold, then in late November expanded into yellow gold, with black lacquer for contrast.
Such large heritage houses are not the only ones to adopt the style.
Jessica McCormack’s new Tapestry collection may recall the embroidered friendship bracelets of the 1980s, but the London-based jeweler said she had been inspired by all manner of graphic forms: mosaics, 1920s floor tiles, murals, even the Tetris video game. The result was a blend of pattern and color, with bold patterns such as the chevron created from emeralds and pink and blue sapphires.
Executing the designs was a complex process, however, as each stone had to be set onto a tiny gold tile, then strung together. “It creates this fabric, liquid-like movement,” said Ms. McCormack, adding, “It was a bit of a nightmare. But I do think the best things always are.”
The colors really pop, she noted, thanks to the rhodium treatment that creates an outline around each tile: blackened white and yellow gold for the blue sapphires and emeralds and blackened white and rose gold for the pink sapphires.
The biggest surprise of the collection, Ms. McCormack said, was seeing clients wearing the bracelets alongside their watches, something she attributes to the bangle’s design and its flat clasp. “It sits beautifully with either an Apple watch or Cartier Tank,” she said. “It can work with a watch, which not all bracelets do well.”
Not far from Ms. McCormack’s boutique in the Mayfair district of London is Hirsh, which has unveiled a new line of diamond-set earrings, bangles and rings in architectural eight- or nine-side shapes.
The design took years to perfect, said Sophia Hirsh, the company’s managing director, with time spent considering the form of the designs, their wearability and ergonomics.
Thanks to the various angles, the jewels deliver wonderful reflections of light, she said. “When the light hits the diamonds and you have these slightly different angles, it will always pick up a lot of extra sparkle,” Ms. Hirsh noted. “It’s a little bit more playful to wear. You want to touch it and feel the different angles.”
Phil Pritchard of the Hockey Hall of Fame works the 2019 NHL Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on June 19, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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Paul W. Downs can’t help it that even on the weekends, his life intersects with “Hacks,” the HBO comedy he co-created and co-showruns with his wife, Lucia Aniello, and their friend Jen Statsky. (He also appears on the show as Jimmy LuSaque Jr., the besieged manager of its two stars, played by Emmy winners Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder.) The fifth and final season of “Hacks” premiered last week, but on Downs’ days off, he often finds himself at its previous filming locations or hanging out with cast members who have become like family.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Downs moved to Los Angeles in 2011, but soon after, he and Aniello were hired to write (and for him to act) on the über-New York show “Broad City,” keeping them away from the West Coast for years. Now the couple live in Los Feliz, which they enjoy with their young son.
“I love Los Feliz because it’s a real neighborhood with restaurants and bars, but also feels close to nature with Griffith Park,” Downs says. “Also it’s very central to my Eastside friends and Westside agents.”
And if he had to live at a local mall, like the character Ava Daniels did in the third season of “Hacks,” which would he choose?
“It would be the Americana, obviously.”
Here’s how he’d spend a perfect day in L.A.
10 a.m.: A late rise and a li’l barista
I’m sleeping in if I can, which I can’t because I have a toddler, but let’s say I can sleep ’til 10. That would be insane.
Then I’m making coffee at home. I’m making it with my 4-year-old because he likes to make my coffee now. He always wanted to help, now he really wants to do it on his own. I’m still there to supervise, but he does do a lot of it.
I do batch brew. I’m doing Verve Coffee that I’m grinding there, and then I’m brewing four cups because I need my coffee. I had a Moccamaster for a long time, but I recently got a Simply Good Coffee. There’s no plastic — it’s all glass and metal.
11 a.m.: Chocolate croissants for everyone
We’re driving to Pasadena and we’re going to [Artisanal Goods by] CAR, which is the place to get the best chocolate croissant, I think, in the world. I don’t just think in L.A., I think they’re better than Paris. I’m going there with my wife and my kid and I’m having another coffee and some pastry. We’re ordering three [chocolate croissants]. We’re not doubling up.
11:45 a.m.: The family business
We’re driving to Fair Oaks in Pasadena. There’s a place called T.L. Gurley. We shot “Hacks” there, actually. Not only in Season 1, but also full circle in Season 5. We’re going to shmay around and look at antiques. My kid is going to want to play a vintage pinball machine. We’re going to find a little piece of art for the house or what have you. It’s not necessarily that I’m on the hunt. It’s to pass the time and to have some fun. If I could do anything and have a leisurely day and take my mind off work, that’s what I’m doing.
People love to interact with my kid when he’s there. We’re really training him to appraise things at a young age. My parents are part-time dealers of antiques. My grandmother bought and sold antiques. It’s kind of a family business.
1:30 pm.: Baguettes and books
We’re driving to Larchmont and we’re getting a sandwich at Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese. I’m doing prosciutto-mozzarella-basil on a baguette.
Then we’re going to Chevalier’s Books. What’s sad is that I’m often not looking for leisure material. I’m looking for something that I’m interested in learning more about or writing about, or that they’re turning into a show I want to audition for. But we’re also doing Little Golden Books for my son. He’s obsessed. We’re not huge on screen time, so we really encourage the book-buying.
2:30 p.m.: Cast pool party
We’re having some family fun in the pool and we’re doing that until evening. We invite people over all the time. My sister-in-law is a New Yorker, but she actually wrote last season on “The Rooster” and she’s often writing on shows in L.A., so she’s often here and she’ll have a couple friends come over. I know this sounds like a piece of PR or something, but we’ll really literally have Hannah [Einbinder] and maybe Mark Indelicato from “Hacks” come over to swim. Jen, our co-creator of “Hacks,” will come over.
6:00 p.m.: Family dinner
Sometimes we’ll order Grá to the house, which is a pizza place in Echo Park — excellent sourdough crust pizza. But if we don’t do that, an ideal evening is an early dinner at All Time on Hillhurst in Los Feliz. We’re ordering the ceviche and my son is having all of it and not sharing with anybody at the table.
8:45 p.m.: A thrilling ending to the day
After putting my kid to bed, my wife and I, in an ideal world (full disclosure: we haven’t done this in two years), we’ll watch something together that we’ve been meaning to watch. We have a long list of movies and we either want to revisit or that we haven’t seen that we need to watch.
We don’t watch a lot of comedies. It’s a dream to watch a “Black Bag” or a little espionage thriller. We really like that because it’s so different than the stuff that we’re working on in the day.
Often the things we watch are things that we admire. We like deconstructing it as fans of film and television. We do like talking about the making of it, but it’s less of a critique and more of a listing of the things we appreciated about it.
10:30 p.m.: No work tomorrow
And then it’s lovemaking ’til morning on a perfect Sunday. If it’s a perfect Sunday, there’s also a Monday that’s off.
Jay (not pictured) found himself alone and hopeless in a jail cell when a fellow inmate’s unexpected words of comfort changed his life.
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When Jay was 22 years old, he was a self-described loner. In this story, he is being identified by his nickname to allow himself to speak candidly about the following experience and his mental health. He says the few people he did hang out with at the time had questionable morals.
”I chose my friends poorly, and your friends have a tendency to rub off on you. And so I started making poor decisions,” Jay said.
One evening, when he and his friends were out drinking, someone suggested they should try to break into the chemistry building on his college campus. Most of the group shrugged the suggestion off, deeming it impossible, but Jay was convinced he could pull it off.
“The next night I made a plan of how to do it, and I did it,” Jay remembered. “And I didn’t get caught doing it, [but] I got caught afterwards.”
At around 1 that morning, Jay was placed in the county detention center. Sitting alone in his cell, reality began to sink in.
“I pretty much thought that my life as I knew it was going to be over, and I had decided that the world would be better off without me in it.”
Jay made a plan to end his life. As he prepared himself, he began to cry.
“But just in that moment when I was ready to do it, I heard a voice coming from the top left corner of my cell, from a little vent. And someone called out to me and said, ‘Hey, is this your first time?’”
The man who called out was an inmate in the cell next door.
“I collected myself a little bit, and I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Can I pray for you?’”
Jay had grown up religious, but had stopped going to church years before. In that moment, though, he knew he needed support. He said yes, and listened as the man began to pray.
“I wish I could tell you that I remember the [exact] words that he said to me, but what I remember is that his words landed with me, and instead of wanting my life to be over, suddenly I saw hope,” Jay said.
The interaction happened nearly ten years ago, but it was a pivotal moment in Jay’s life, and one he thinks about all the time.
“[Now], I have a good job. I have a girlfriend who loves me. I have a life. But I have a life because somebody who was in the same situation I was in had the courage to talk to a fellow inmate and be kind.”
Jay says that he wishes he could meet that man again and express his appreciation.
“[I would] shake that guy’s hand, give him a hug, and tell him what his small gesture meant for me, how he changed the course of my life.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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