Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Some people say shiny things distract them…but I like to think shiny things entrance me.  I absolutely adore everything shiny and sparkly.  I decided to do a quick experiment – I gave myself one minute to take a picture of as many things as I could find in my room which fit that description, and the results are shown below.

Just kidding...these shoes are only mine in my dreams!  I took this photo in Bergdorf Goodman's shoe department in New York City.

It turns out that sixty seconds is not long enough to take many pictures!  But you get the idea, shiny and sparkly accessories make me smile.  I was inspired to learn WHY we are attracted to shiny things.  Sure, my bedazzled watch is a pretty and funky wrist adornment, and I definitely love to glam up with my glittery, metallic nail polish for special occasions.  However, I’m a curious gal, and I wanted to know more.  It turns out the answer is as simple as one hydrogen atom bonded to two oxygen atoms.

WATER!  We guzzle about two liters of H₂O every day to stay alive and healthy, but I never would have imagined that water contributed to my selection of accessories.  However, I discovered that we have evolution to thank:  clean, potable water is shiny because its surface reflects light.  Way back in time, our ancestors survived for days at a time without locating a drinkable water source.  Our genetic predisposition to shiny things is explained by the concept that humans learned to recognize a body of water when they saw a shiny area in the distance.  The shinier the water, the more clean and drinkable it was.  Then natural selection came into play.  Just as a refresher (pun intended), natural selection is the process by which organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.  Natural selection is one of the major processes that causes evolution.  The humans and animals that were more skilled at finding clean water were better adapted to survive and reproduce, so their genes were passed on, and today humans and several other species of animals have an affinity for shiny and sparkly things.  How fascinating is that?!  I love science. 

The rest of this post is devoted to introducing you to or reminding you of two of my favorite makers of shiny and sparkly things, jewelry designers Jennifer Dawes and Dana Lorenz. 

Jennifer Dawes

Jennifer Dawes has a background in fine arts and metalsmithing.  She creates sustainably responsible jewelry by melding her passion for ancient civilizations with current culture and design.  Her collection, Dawes Design, was launched in 2000, and every piece of jewelry in her collection is hand-made.  Her pieces are simple, radiant, and designed for people to be able to express their individual tastes.  The collection encourages customers to try “stacking” the pieces, which involves combining as many pieces as you desire in whatever order or arrangement you choose.  An example of an exquisitely "stack" of jewelry from her collection “Blockette” is shown below.

Ms. Dawes’ pieces are beautiful by themselves, as well.  I included a selection of six of my favorite pieces below to give you a taste of her work.  I encourage you to learn more about Dawes Design at her website, and you might even end up adding to your jewelry collection!

Lux ring with oval pink sapphire (My favorite piece in her collection!)

Relic band swirl small with 6 diamonds

Drape lotus flower earrings

Canyon ring 5 channel

Tine square diamond ring

Dew drop band solitaire 4.5 mm diamond

“Learning how to manipulate this hard, shiny material was like magic to me and I have been passionate about it ever since. My hands have to physically manipulate and fabricate in order for the ideas to emerge out of the metal.” –Jennifer Dawes

Dana Lorenz

If I were asked to describe FENTON/FALLON’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection, the first words out of my mouth would be “jaw dropping.”  FENTON/FALLON's designer, Dana Lorenz, started out in the fashion industry working for Gucci and Donna Karan.  However, what began as a personal pet project for Ms. Lorenz quickly became her true calling:  jewelry design.  She launched FENTON in 2006, a collection which draws inspiration from pop culture, fantasy, and aestheticism.  Each piece of jewelry is dramatic, yet elegant, and many pieces contain Ms. Lorenz’s trademark twisted chains that intertwine crystals, pearls, bead, and rope.  Following FENTON’s immediate success, Dana Lorenz launched FALLON in 2007, a lower-priced collection consisting of bold and intricate pieces of jewelry.  Ms. Lorenz’s versatility is inspiring and exciting, and her talent and ambition earned her recognition by Italian Vogue as one of their "New Talents" featured in the magazine and at Milan Fashion Week, along with several other honors and awards.

Please visit FENTON/FALLON’s website to learn more about Dana Lorenz’s work.  I included several of my favorite pieces from FENTON/FALLON’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection below.  Enjoy!

Sagamore triple plate choker (My favorite piece in the SS 2012 collection!)

Berkeley nugget choker

Sagamore triple plate choker layered with Berkeley nugget choker

 

Delano bead cuff multi

Sagamore double choker

Delano classic choker

Raleigh XL earrings

FENTON Spring 2012 Show

FENTON Spring 2012 Show

Spotlight on the First Lady

Michelle Obama accessorized with a stunning FENTON bow necklace for a Fourth of July TV special that aired on ABC in 2010 (shown above).  She was first seen wearing the dazzling piece of jewelry on the cover of the December 2009 issue of Glamour Magazine (shown below), in which she was honored as a Woman of the Year.  Go Michelle O!

In 2011, the First Lady paired a Prabal Gurung dress with another FENTON/FALLON necklace (shown below) for an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

P.S.  Fun fact of the day – if you didn’t know, the title of this post (Shine On You Crazy Diamond) is the title of a Pink Floyd song.

Spotlight on L.V.

Louis Vuitton is a coveted brand in our society, and Vuitton bags, shoes, jewelry, and accessories simply ooze glamour, elegance, and sophistication.  So I stopped short when I heard Louis Vuitton’s men’s style director, Kim Jones, refer to Vuitton’s Menswear Spring-Summer 2012 collection as “practical” in an interview with International Herald Tribune fashion editor Suzy Menkes.  (Check out the full interview here.)  Everything in the collection is meant to be easily portable and smart for frequent travelers.  The shoes completely flatten (shown below) in order to take up a minimal amount of space when transported, and the bags (one is shown below) are designed to feature functionality. 

However, the inspiration for the collection was what really intrigued me.  Kim Jones utilized his memories of growing up in Africa as a basis for the collection.  Jones also cited Peter Beard, a photographer and artist whose work focused on Africa and African animals, as one of his lifelong heroes.  Beard’s 1965 book End of the Game, which is about the obliteration of African wildlife, was a motivation for the collection.  (Learn more about Peter Beard and his work here.)  In her interview with Jones, Suzy Menkes emphasized wood carvings engraved with the Louis Vuitton symbols that Jones utilized to develop the collection.  The carvings intertwined Jones’ appreciation and love of Africa with the carpentry used to construct Louis Vuitton trunks in the early twentieth century.

The bold red and blue plaid featured in the collection echoes the prints of the “shuka,” a traditional article of clothing worn by the semi-nomadic Maasai tribe of East Africa.  The Maasai is Kenya's most well-known ethnic tribe, although some Maasai live in northern Tanzania.  I included several images below of the Maasai people adorned in the shuka, as well as photographs of Vuitton models sporting items from the Spring-Summer 2012 collection, and the resemblance is striking.  Shukas, which are almost always red and often have a plaid or striped pattern of blue, black or dark purple, are large squares of cloth that are wrapped around the body and over each shoulder.  The shuka is worn by the Maasai for every day purposes, not for tribal rituals or ceremonies.  Red is a color associated with blood and courage, so it is appropriate that shukas are typically worn by male warriors of the Maasai tribe.  The “kanga,” another one-piece garment, and the “kikoy,” which resembles a sarong, are other articles of clothing worn by the Maasai depending on their location. 

People of the Maasai tribe wearing shukas

Maasai warrior

Louis Vuitton runway show for the Menswear Spring-Summer 2012 collection

Louis Vuitton’s use of the simple, yet vibrant pattern of the shuka has sparked quite a controversy, with some people opining that L.V. stole the shuka for its collection, and others wondering if Africa is on the verge of losing its cultural and artistic heritage and symbols.  (Read an article about the debate over patenting to prevent Africa from losing its culture and identity here.)  Is it ethical that Louis Vuitton will make money from the collection, but the Maasai people will not profit from it at all?  How is it possible to distinguish between artistic inspiration and stealing the symbols and traditional patterns of another culture?  Is Vuitton’s Menswear Spring-Summer 2012 collection fostering globalization and cultural awareness or instigating hostility?  What do you think about this controversial couture?