Lotus Arts de Vivre

Senin, 10 November 2014

 

For Statement Makers Only

Bangkok is full of so-called jewelry designers. Every month, one glossy magazine or another profiles a Bangkok socialite who has announced that she’s decided to design a jewelry line in her spare time.

But none have managed to reach the heights of Lotus Arts de Vivre, profiled on Forbes.com this week. Noting that the 28-year-old Thai brand is one of the largest single-piece jewelry producers in the world, Forbes talks to the company’s head, Rolf von Bueren, calling him a latter-day Jim Thompson.

In recent years the iconic jewelry brand, known for its bold Asian and animal themed creations made with opulent raw materials, has successfully expanded into overseas markets like Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.

We won’t get into prices, other than to note that most of the statement-making pieces start at several thousand U.S. dollars. The fact that Lotus Arts de Vivre's only two Bangkok boutiques are in the Mandarin Oriental and the Four Seasons hotels speaks for itself.

komentar | | Read More...

Best Mumbai Jewelers

 

Best Mumbai jewelers: 1 Day Itinerary

Attack the top five Mumbai jewelers in Colaba -- all in one day -- armed with this page.

If by sunset you don't come back with a fistful of handcrafted bangles, cocktail rings and chandelier earrings, it's cause for shock.

• Stop 1: Fun at Curio Cottage

Designs are cute and prices reasonable, you can start having some fun here.

Curio Cottage has these wooden bangles dotted with semi-precious stones that are quite unique.

But even better, they do customized jewelry -- choose your beads and string it your way. And be sure to ask the charming owner Anand, for a private viewing.

19 Mahakavi Bhushan Marg, Colaba, near Regal Cinema; tel +91 (0) 22 2202 2607

• Stop 2: History at Gazdar

This old boutique is in Taj Hotel’s heritage wing and makes it worth a visit on account of the location.

But then -- when you look at all the royal jewelry styles dating back centuries, from their Jadau (inlaid) vintage uncut stones and elegant art deco pieces to South Sea pearls -- it becomes quite an another experience.

Make sure of this -- Gazdar's cufflinks for men, that's what you should buy.

Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Apollo Bunder, Colaba; tel +91 (0) 22 2202 3666

• Stop 3: Now shop at D. Popli and Sons

D. Popli and Sons is a favorite Mumbai jeweler.

Their Victorian-styles are popular, they sometimes have interesting objets d’art and serious customers are treated to the best espresso in town.

More on CNNGo: The Mumbai male commitment-phobe speaks

Readymoney Building, Battery Street, Apollo Bunder, behind Regal Cinema, next to Gordon House hotel; tel +91 (0) 22 2202 1694

• Stop 4: Holy grail at Gem Palace

After lunch in Colaba (sandwich and a salad at Indigo Deli maybe), visit The Courtyard where the famous Gem Palace has its Mumbai boutique.

Everything you could want in Indian jewelry, from North to South, traditional Rajasthani artisanal pieces to contemporary settings are within this tiny space.

Gem Palace has decked out royalty from around the world and some pieces can even be found in Barneys, New York.

The Courtyard, S.P. Center, 41/44 Minoo Desai Marg, Colaba, next to Radio Club; tel +91 (0) 22 6638 5484

• Stop 5: Cool down at Silver House

Here is a budget-friendly Mumbai jeweler in a Colaba bazaar, where you can go gift shopping for silver earrings or bangles and other trinkets.

Cheap and chic mostly, but complemented by their elaborate South Indian jewelry collection.

Silver House is a well-kept secret when it comes to Mumbai jewelers and a very satisfying way to end your bling’d out day gem-digging downtown.

komentar | | Read More...

A New Shine On Indian Jewelry Design

 

Underground Jewels: A New Shine On Indian Jewelry Design

Meenakshi Dash, Martinaa New and Fanny Boucher make their dazzling debuts between March 2 and 6 with found objects, precious gems and flouro baubles in this paragon of Indian fashion boutiques: Bombay Electric, 1 Reay House, BEST Marg, Colaba; tel. +91 (0) 22 2287 6276.

Meenakshi Dash hails from Mumbai, London, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Singapore and Hong Kong, all at the same time. She finds that being a bit of a "cultural omelet" forces her to create work that cannot be labeled, but remains faithful to all. She holds a fine arts degree from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and an MBA from the University of Chicago and London Business School and currently resides in Hong Kong.

Fanny Boucher's native abode is Paris, but she calls Jaipur her home. Her pieces at Honorine Jewels tell tales of poetry, travel, and a longing for all things beautiful. After the launch of her first collection on Net-a-Porter in 2009, Bombay Electric is delighted to bring her hand-made, exquisite pieces to Mumbai as an exclusive first. After Bombay, Fanny is off to her hometown to show at Paris Fashion Week.

Martinaa New is influenced by the sights, sounds and sensations of the everyday exceptional. Her hand-crafted pieces make powerful totems of peace with their use of political and religious symbolism, always promoting harmony through diversity. This philosophy is reflected in her eclectic choice of stones, colors and found objects, which combine to make one-off collector’s pieces.

komentar | | Read More...

Golden Boy of Fine Jewelry Opens Flagship In Hong Kong

 

Matthew Campbell Laurenza

Matthew Campbell Laurenza’s maximalist enamel and gemstone fine jewelry reminds us of an overflowing pirate treasure chest. And soon, Hong Kong will have its own shopful of M.C.L. designs for us to stare at.

Since launching in 2007, Laurenza’s eye-grabbing ethnic bangles and ornate cocktail rings have been spotted on the famous arms and fingers of Rihanna, Leighton Meister and Carrie Underwood. His fine jewelry line regularly graces the likes of US and Italian Vogue, US Elle and W magazine.

M.C.L. isn't new to the Hong Kong fashion crowd -- Lane Crawford carries some of his pieces -- but soon he'll be bringing his entire fine jewelry line to Hong Kong with the opening of a flagship store at the Landmark in the week of December 7.

The designer said he draws inspiration for his bohemian-luxe designs from Gothic architecture, and his Native American and Italian lineage. “I would say my understanding of color has been influenced through my extensive travels in Asia,” he said.

His decadent Fall/Winter fine jewelry collection wouldn't look out of place in a Catherine the Great portrait. Check out our picture gallery above for more.

komentar | | Read More...

Hot New Travel Inspired Jewelry

 

Shrapnel earrings:Hot New Travel Inspired Jewelry

It's become a social enterprise cliché: vacation in Southeast Asia, fall in love with local craftsmanship, feel despair in the face of local poverty, put one and one together, try to start community jewelry/ clothing/ furniture business.

But Hong Kong's latest tourism-to-entrepreneurship project, Edge of Ember, stands out because the designs are so darn funky.

The Willow necklace from the latest collection is a navel-grazing length of gold chain weighted down by geometric pendants and a brass spike. It's a little bit House of Harlow and a total contrast from the usual nicey-nicey designs of earnest social enterprises.

Trendy as it may be, Edge of Ember does not lack in bleeding-heart backstory.

The raw materials for the necklace are bombshell fragments rescued by Cambodian artisans from organized de-mining efforts by HALO Trust and Cambodian Mine Action Centre. Fishermen also find bombshells from the Mekong River. The artisans clean and melt the fragments to reuse the brass.

"Artisans change genocide remnants, and a reminder of their painful past, into something of beauty," says Edge of Ember founder Lynette Ong.

There are also chunky bangles made from rescued buffalo horn in the Thuy Ung village south of Hanoi. The artisans go around to buffalo slaughterhouses to collect discarded horns.

Off-white hoops of horn are decorated with black velvet bands and brass spikes. It's just waiting for a poolside Instagram shoot.

komentar | | Read More...

Tokyo's tiny shop for minimalist jewelry

 

Acrylic: Tokyo's tiny shop for minimalist jewelry

Jewelry in Japan has traditionally been austere and restrained, but the styles often seen in Shibuya or Harajuku these days would be better described as 'garish and cheap.' The most interesting accessories brands, however, offer more considered creations that mix traditional Japanese accents with modernism's most successful progeny: minimalism.

Behind the Roppongi Hills complex, on the left before a quiet intersection, is Acrylic. The building, with its shining two-story facade, is famous for filling a space less than two meters wide. Designed by Klein-Dytham Architecture (the people responsible for the SuperDeluxe venue, among other notable architectural sites), this space is a paper thin temple to the see-through and the synthetic.

acrylicA peek at Acrylic's interior.The exterior windows are covered in a white vinyl silhouette of a bamboo grove, allowing sunlight to pass through the interstices onto vivid laser cut necklaces, felt and sponge rings, and honeycomb mesh bags. The product stock evokes the fare of museum shops around the world -- novel, idiosyncratic accessories, made from unexpected materials -- but with much more attention to detail. The accents here are distinctively Japanese married to geometric forms rooted in the modular, blobular and globular designs of the 1960s.

A variety of designers are stocked -- a nice and careful selection -- but the real attractions are the designs by Masako Ban, a Japanese jeweler awarded for her designs by Wallpaper* Magazine.

The prices range from an affordable sales area with items under ¥1,000 to higher priced necklaces (¥14,000) and shimmering gold brooches (¥10,000) attracting a bevy of design conscious Japanese ladies -- namely, the young woman wandering down from Roppongi and the older woman up from Hiroo.

The common thread between the jewelry and accessories here is simplicity. Keeping things contemporary, Acrylic's curation tends towards the colorful and minimal, allowing the materials themselves to shine. Make sure to take care on the tiny staircase up to the second floor though. Minimalism, in excess, is anything but safe.

komentar | | Read More...

Shanghai jewelry show

 

Shanghai jewelry show loses its shine

The Shanghai Fine Jewellery and Art Fair, set to run from May 16-23 at RockBund Art Museum, hit into one small snafu: much of their jewelry was held up in Chinese customs. Oops.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “many of the galleries displayed, instead of art, simple signs that apologetically said ‘Due to a logistic issue, some or all of the exhibits of this gallery are not being displayed.’” We’re sure that this isn’t quite the debut event that the newly opened and much-talked about RockBund Art Museum had in mind.

For one antique dealers who was confronted with “logistic issues,” she found out that her goods were all kept in customs due to “two pairs of gold 17th-century gold hairpins. Apparently, the Asian art expert said, ‘You can’t import gold.’”

As for the galleries who are proceeding on, no customs issues in sight? One high-end antique gallery owner told the WSJ that they “sidestepped Customs snafus by hand carrying their items in backpacks and telling airport agents the items were cheap knockoffs.”

Considering this is far from the event’s first year (it used to be held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center), one would think the event organizers would know how to help vendors properly navigate Chinese custom's chanels.

Now moved to a more luxurious location, The Shanghai Fine Jewellery and Art Fair is well-placed to target China’s growing luxury consumer market that everyone seems to want a part of these days.

Exhibitors -- and all those who flocked to RockBund ArtMuseum in search of new bling -- are hoping their goods will be released before the event ends on Mary 23.

komentar | | Read More...