When the rock ‘n’ roll jeweler Stephen Webster designs his new London flagship, he decided that there was only one motif strong enough for one of his walls: a fish. So an illuminated stained glass window of a Japanese fighter fish will dominate the no-track bar on four levels, planned to open in May in the 19th-century Burlington Arcade.
He certainly used the motive of the season: Fish Jewelry, who landed in shops and online sites, was in the spotlight last fall at many of the spring shows.
During the Schiaparelli show, Daniel Roseberry went for drama with a single long gilt copper earring in the form of a fishkelet, his tail circled a pearl ($ 3,300 for a few). At Roberto Cavalli, Fausto Puglisi sent a copper swordfish pendant dangling from a thick aluminum chain (price on application). And in his latest collection for Bottega Veneta (before he moved to Chanel), Matthieu Blazy went for a quirky effect and gave his 18-carat-gilt silver fish earrings Pearl Bodies and Agate Eyes ($ 2,150).
Even the newest high jewelry collections had fish, such as the clip of Van Cleef & Arpels of diamonds sown fish that swim in a glittering ocean of 128 blue and Mauve sapphire, with a weight of 40.89 carat (price on application).
An increased interest in sustainability most likely led to this school of fishing pieces, said Colleen Hill, the senior curator of costume in the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. After all, there are “worries about a future lack of water and the concern about pollution in our oceans and even pollution within the fish that people eat,” said Dr. Hill, so such jewels are “a reference to the beauty of the ocean life and a necessity to keep that.”
Fish as a symbol of happiness, prosperity, freedom and more probably also played a part, Ruby Beales, the jewelry purchase manager at Liberty Department Store in London, wrote in an e -mail. She noted that fish designs are also ‘conversation starters’.
From the point of view of the designers, fish motifs enable them to unleash their imagination. “You can be more creative with fish, because there is no fixed idea,” said Audrey Cohen, the founder of Audrey C. Jewelry in New York. With motifs such as lips or keys, there is “less with which you can play,” she said, because there are standard ideas about what they look like – while “fish are more detailed, with more pieces to assemble.”
But even the simplest fish design can be complicated. For example, Mrs. Cohen has a red and purple email fish chain, his tail and eye accentuated with diamonds ($ 7,000). The fish is divided into five segments and, she said, the head was first designed because “it was easier to go down, and then the tail, because I didn’t know how I wanted to see the tail” – but she added: “It had to match the measurement of the head.”
Brooke Gregson, a jewelry designer in Los Angeles and London, said she found a fishing shape more difficult to work with than other animals, such as butterflies. “If you remove the color, you know, the shape is not necessarily beautiful,” she said.
And determining the position of a fish shape within a design can also be complicated, she said, and noted that she has placed an 18-carat gold fish horizontal on her diamond fish chain ($ 2,180) and fish chain link tape ($ 3,150). If she had dangled the fish, she said, it would look like: “Almost like it’s addicted and it’s dead. And here it is alive and swimming. “
Early designs
In what is now China, fish from Jade were worn like amulets, which hung like hangers, already in the Neolithic era of 10,000 BC, according to Carol Michaelson, a research curator in the Asia department of the British Museum.
And jewelry with fish motifs have also been associated with the earliest known civilization, called Sumer, from 4,500 to 4,000 BC. An area now occupied in South Iraq. The designs were logical, said the jewelry historian Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, “because fish was a very important part of their diet.”
The motif has been used throughout history in jewelry, including Talismans in ancient Egypt, a symbol of faith among early Christians, a decorative element in the creations of Renaissance and a common theme in African tribal jewelry.
In modern times, fish arose as a popular sport in the late 1800s and early 1900s, so the motifs began to be seen on pieces such as brooches, as well as “bracelets that surround the wrist that look like fish,” Dr. Hill.
And jewelry with skelete fish designs appeared in the sixties, according to Dr. Hill, who has included a few golden tone aluminum earrings from that period in “Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities”, planned until April 20 in the Fit Museum.
Squid v. Octopus
Nowadays all kinds of fish are represented in jewelry. Koi, a Japanese term for carp, was recently presented in various 18-carat golden designs accentuated with diamonds by the Sydney Evan brand in Los Angeles; Dory, a blue tang in Disney’s “Finding Nemo”, was again conceived in grenades and in Tanzanite by Marie-Hélène de Taillac in Paris; And the Japanese delicacy fugu, or puffer fish, was converted into 18-carat yellow golden stud earrings with diamond eyes by Melinda Zeman, the founder of Boochier in Hong Kong.
Mr. Webster said he created a titanium and aquamarine necklace in the form of a squid, accentuated with diamonds and emeralds (price on application). “A squid is a lot easier to work with than – this will sound really stupid – an octopus,” he said.
The squid has’ a long tube -shaped body and, you go, ‘I can work with that’ because that can then form, you know, a chain. I couldn’t do that with an octopus because it is a big blob. “
A single earring of a fish in 18-carat white and pink gold strewn with diamonds and pink sapphires was designed by Mio Harutaka in Tokyo ($ 2,260), while Ulla Johnson created a copper Sana Fish Necklace ($ 490), the brand of which was mounted with small hangers to allow movement. “
Fishing dishes are an obsession for Selim Mouzannar, the jewelry designer based in Beirut, since 2021.
He said he adjusted his round Basilik setting to hold round gems, a combination that is intended to look like scales, for 10 new chains (starting at $ 2,360), including an 18-carat pink gold chain in coral glass with pink and yellow sapphires and diamonds.
And he creates a repetition of his 18-carat pink gold cuff, set with aquamarines, peridots, tourmalines and sapphire, adding yellow enamel fish bowls in large and small sizes, connected to the bracelet with gold thread to make movement possible.
Like several of his counterparts, Mr. Mouzannar also experimented with new fish motif designs. He said that he wanted to use Paraíba touring males for fish bowls, because “the transparency of the Paraíba looks like the crystal water of the ocean and is therefore connected to the fish.”
And Mrs. Gregson said that the color and the variety of tropical fish had planned its new designs. “It’s not easy,” she said. “Fish like this, it will take forever. But I’m going to do it. “
