Repossi – Setting the Standard
December 15, 2016
Fashion & Beauty
Words:
Eleanor Kirby
Eleanor Kirby
Sketching a design before anything else, Gaia Repossi looks to the slings that keep the stones in place when it comes to jewellery design. This sleek support structure is much like Repossi, the 94-year-old jewellery brand, at which Gaia has shone to the forefront amidst almost a century of family foundation.
Despite this notion of the well thought out blueprint, merging business and design, the building blocks of her latest collection fall short of steel girders, in favour of something a little more pliable. Referencing stitches, hinges and wood piling, spun gold hooks onto the ear as a cuff, while other pieces pin them back forcefully to mirror staples, resembling fledgling shoots of smoked filigree more so than the hardware that dapples your desk space. The Agrafe collection, which made its debut to clients last month, sees fluidity sidle up to bold structure, “reinventing a very industrial feeling” with option to be spilt onto the skin in piercing black, rose or yellow gold. Full paved or plain? Construction never seemed so painterly.
A romantic eye seems to be one of the fruits of Gaia’s Master’s degree in Archaeology, affably engaged in a crusade against the sort of regimented mind that keeps a company afloat through the formative decades of the mid-twentieth century. The workshops first used in the 1920s, when the company was established, are still at the core of Repossi’s traditional style. The melting pot (or ingot mold) is so diverse that Gaia’s skill lies in the big decision, the ratio of heritage to innovation.
The Artistic Director of the languid Italian brand, Gaia was born in Turin, grew up in Monaco and Paris, where she now resides, time sharing with New York. Her geographical ties are ever present in another aspect of life at home, Gaia’s Bengal cats, Perseus and Prometheus and the refusal to be in any sort of a hurry is a character trait that the two P’s share with visitors to the store. “Fast, slow, very slow” the tiers of the street, gallery and salon recognise all types of shopper – from heady buyer to considered collector. The brand states their plans to pull away from the typical jewellery store in using unconventional materials when paving the stage set by Dutch architectural firm, OMA. Sleek surfaces are unfurled, medicine cabinets erected and the aluminium staircase polished.
Gaia Repossi is soldering old and new together with her every endeavour; from renovated showroom, to something a little more portable.
