LOVE LFW: Bejewelled

Jewellery rarely makes me gasp!  That's gasp with a seriously big exclamation mark.  However much they come laden with expensive precious rocks, I generally am only able to muster up the muted enthusiasm of "Oh that's PRETTY!"  The word "pretty" just isn't good enough when it comes to Jordan Askill's work and gasping with serious exclamation marks is exactly what I did when I entered his installation at the New Gen area at London Fashion Week.  First of all you're confronted by a human bust.  Where we've come to expect magnificent displays of animalia, never before has a human face entered the picture.  'The Swallow Bird Bust' is Askill's latest labour of love, a stunning home for his jewellery but is generally something that is made for beauty and display propriety's sake.  I hope Askill doesn't take this the wrong way but I look at these sculptures and think that they would leave a real design legacy and that 50 years down the line, the V&A will be displaying these with pride alongside Georgian vases or Victorian marbles.  That's pretty elevating stuff for a jewellery designer but then again Askill is the sort of creative visionary that sees a bigger picture beyond necklaces, rings and bracelets…

The cascades of swallows that decorate the bust also wrap their way around these resin wrist corsages that actually open up to reveal itself as a bijoux jewellery box.  I never even knew what a corsage was until I read American teen fiction and the word kept popping up every time there was a prom scenario.  I'm pretty sure those wilting floral corsages don't stand a chance up against these devastatingly beautiful resin ones.  The unlikely scenario of a special someone placing an object like this on my wrist and then saying "I'm so glad you're going with me to prom!" is the stuff of super fantastical secret crush day dreams and getting so giddy over what is essentially a jewellery box is precisely what makes Askill's work so evocative. 

Askill's swallows follow through to silver cast brooches, earrings and necklaces along with hand-carved amethyst that has been used in collaboration with ethical coloured gemstone producer Gemfields.  Yes, ethically produced jewellery is news to me, not that the ethical nature of Askill's jewellery is the main selling point here.  It's the fairy tales that Askill weaves into his jewellery that sparks imagination.  How can a Pegasus unicorn with an amethyst horn, a panther curved around into a bracelet and a swarm of swallows appear in a collection without women dreaming up fairy tales in their heads involving mythical creatures and the animal kingdom coming alive – the sort of thoughts that are buried in childhood but are somehow re-ignited by Askill's work.  I'm going into gushy superlatives here but honestly, seeing this stuff in person really did spark me off into the direction where I'm once again dreaming of having wavy auburn locks, pre-Raphaelite paintings and floor-trailing gowns as I once did when I was about seven.   

Askill's more accessible range Jordy (the birthstone rings are still on Opening Ceremony) continues to grow and make its impact in the most subtle of ways including this duo of heartbreak rings that fortunatley come together again intertwined as one, speckled with amethyst to link in with the main collection.  I still maintain that they manage to catch a lot of eyes despite being so dainty and small which is a credit to Askill's skill that with any amount of raw material, he's able to craft something significant from it all.  

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Dominic Jones' presentation in contrast was less contemplative and more forthright with a booming performance from the Alpines whose track Cocoon has been haunting most Indian summer playlists.    

Jones' jewellery which has always been strong on a harking back to a punk aesthetic without being derivative has taken a slightly more spiritual and feminine turn by referencing the architecture of Gothic cathedrals.  There's a stateliness to the pieces now where you can trace arches, pillars, columns and plasterwork in the cathedrals in his rings, necklaces and earrings in his trademark of four metal colourways.  Jones also expanded his second line to use semi-precious stones – opals, garnet and smoked quartz.      

There's one particular straw quartz ring where delicate black lines are naturally formed in the stone that is for me the stand out piece in the collection.  Actually, all of Jones' rings are pretty stunning in form and with this new collection that veers away from spikes, bones and other 'tough' motifs that sadly gets replicated over and over again in contemporary jewellery, it's the purity of the shapes that elevate Jones' foundations.  

He normally has an amazing bevy of people lined up for his lookbooks and this season is no different with the Alpines, Florence Welch, Tallulah Harlech and Cara Delevingne modelling and in some ways embodying the collection… 

I'm ashamed to say that I've not yet picked up the first issue of Garage.  I saw the special Garace ice cream van doing the rounds in New York but greedily went for the earl grey ice cream and subsequently forgot to pick up the mag.  Doh!  Dominic Jones has contributed to the first issue by creating temporal jewellery out of fresh flowers in this editorial which shows a different slant to his work.  

(Photography by Angelo Pennetta, Styling by Francesca Burns – Garage Issue 1)