YOSSI HARARI

Yossi Harari is an award winning Israeli designer and goldsmith. Influenced by the rich culture and artifacts that surrounded him, Yossi creates stunning 24k gold pieces, utilizing the hammering technique. The marks left by this technique make his jewelry organic and natural. They look as though the designer only had to gently coax the gold to its brilliant shape. Each jewel is an OOAK piece of art.

His work is exotic and designed to make a grand entrance. He uses bold ovals and chains as the motifs of his work. He loves to pave the yellow gold with colorful gems of different cuts, sizes, and colors. He also loves pairing it with black diamonds and black agents.

His work is truly magnificent and regal.

GEORG JENSEN

Georg Jensen Brand has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. He is one of the few designers to almost exclusively use sterling silver. He will sometimes work in 14K gold or stone, but for the most part he is known for his silver.

His classic work is usually made of broaches and cufflinks. He often depicts flowers or animals in dynamic poses. His style tends to contain his jewelry within a general shape - almost always a circle. Georg Jensen is also known for its silverware.
Sometimes more so than his jewelry.

The contemporary line is a lot more sleek than the classical original work of the designer. It still carries on his tradition of modesty and class, but with a small pinch of circa 2000 flare.

He has a very elegant touch. His jewelry is modest, and can adorn any outfit without being flashy or pretentious.

DAVID YURMAN

Although Yurman's style has become more uniform, and now that he is a player in the "big luxury brand" game, his style is still very distinct. It seems that he loves concentric and parallel lines. He uses his metal very boldly, and makes large attention grabbing pieces with it.

If Yurman were to have a signature, it would most definitely be a rope pattern. Most of his work has a twisted band of metal on it at least somewhere, if not the entire piece itself.

His approach to design seems to be with fashion in mind. The directness of his designs allows for his pieces to be worn with many different outfits and for any number of occasions. Aside from being bold, his work is very strategic, and a definite must for any fashionable lady.

ARTHUR KING

Arthur King's approach to gold jewelry is perhaps as unique as his namesake would suggest.  He doesn't attempt to control the gold, rather he lets it do its own thing. He uses the lost wax casting technique and creates  wispy  settings for raw gems and baroque pearls. He emulates both the geometric crystal forms found in earth, and the gnarly features one would find in rocks in his designs. His pieces look as if mother nature herself was presenting her gems to man.

GURHAN

Nobody needs to point out that Gurhan's jewelry is the most distinguishable from all others. Aside from being the first contemporary designer to work with pure gold, his pieces are embued with ancient inspired techniques and an old world aura. From first impressions, one assumes that they are handling a restored artifact rather than a piece of fine designer jewelry.

For the longest time, most jewelry designers considered 24 karat gold too soft to work with. Gurhan, however, denounced this. Going back to the roots of ancient gold smithing, he studied Anatolian, Ottoman, and Byzantine techniques and applied their teachings to his craft. The softness of the metal and the almost archeological approach to his jewelry gave way to beautiful, organic, and historic designs. By leaving hammer dents and natural imperfections in the gold, he gives his work a very handcrafted and personal touch. He will also carve precious and semiprecious stones, or incorporate ancient coins in his jewelry. It really is a kind all its own.

This season he introduces his new line called "4/24." In this line he partners his signature 24 karat gold with a rediscovered Ottoman alloy containing only 4 karats of gold.

LALAoUNIS

The art form of jewelry most likely predates any of the other art forms. Man's love for beautiful and shiny rocks is a base instinct we share with many other life forms, and jewelry was the first way we branched off from mere instinct and created art for pleasure's sake.

Iliac LALAoUNIS, a Greek designer,  takes the history of jewelry very seriously, and bases his entire collection on it. Using the most common historical motifs from each era, LALAoUNIS creates a line of jewelry for Paleolithic and Neolithic, Minoan and Mycenaean, Ancient Greek, Roman, and African/Nubian periods. His goal was to connect each of his pieces with a piece of history.

LALAoUNIS doesn't copy from artifacts. He rather sums up the main idea from each period, and interprets it into beautiful 22 and 28K Gold jewelry. You won't find many stones set into his pieces. He preferred to work with gold. You'll find small rubies and gems in the eyes of his animal head collection, and in some of his african inspired pieces, but rarely anywhere else.

His company continues to thrive under his four daughters, and they continue his mission to marry ancient art forms with contemporary flares.

ME & RO

Me & Ro is perhaps the rebel line in fine jewelry. Their work is playful, contemporary, and figurative based (a rare thing in luxury jewelry).

Me and & Ro is more of a metal based brand, working in silver and 10K Gold. They do a lot of engraving in their metal, and even when engraving isn't apparent, they will "tattoo" the metal in parts of their collection with cheeky little designs.

Their jewelry uses vibrant eastern influenced shapes, and relatively modest gems. You will find spanish skulls, engraved elephants, and elegant fish as common motifs for them.  This brand clearly plays to a much younger audience with a flair for something different.

MOVADO

Classy, elegant, masculine;  Movado is the jewelry of a true gentleman.
Founded in 1881, this company has made countless incredible new age time pieces with a Bauhaus sensibility in place. Where most watch makers focused on the insides of their watches, Movado focused on the design of the time pieces themselves.

Their watches are contemporary, futuristic, and elegant. They appeal to men of all ages and persuasions. No need to be fumbling with pockets and sliding your finger across your iGadgets to check the time. Their lines make temporal information far more chic and impressive than any iDevice can.

They use state of the art watch making techniques and their designs are absolutely inspired. Any respectable man who dares to call himself a gentleman should verily consider these watches.

Movado does not ignore the ladies! Their lines for women entangle femininity and masculinity in a perfect balance to best showcase today's strong women. 

VAHE NALTCHAYAN

Vahe Naltchayan is a middle eastern goldsmith with a penchant for Greek, Turkish, Israeli, and Byzantine designs. Vahe began his metallurgical education in Beirut, Lebabon. He then moved to Italy where he gained a few awards for his design, and finally settled in America in 1980.

His work is very regal, and has a very old world feel and look about it. He exclusively uses 18K gold, but adorns it with big intaglio and cut gems. He will occasionally use diamonds, but very rarely. A lot of his work uses an Acid Wash Matte Finish - a technique he created himself, and one that has quickly spread out to other designers.

He has a very fine body of work. This is a must have for any collector who loves ancient inspired designs like Zolotas, Gurhan, and LaLaounis.

DE GRISOGONO

de Grisogono holds nothing back. They're not trying to fool anyone. They take a lust for life and brilliance and pack it all into one stunning, colorful piece of jewelry after another. Their vivacious color palettes, glittering gems, and explosive designs make every single piece of jewelry a living breathing thriving companion of adornment. Each creature is encrusted with a multitude of the finest cut stones of the wildest assortment of colors and cuts.

No fear however. There are plenty of breath taking pieces for the more conservative buyer as well. de Grisogono's designs are ahead of the times. They feature pieces with a lot of complexity, yet with a very strong sense of unity about the whole. Not all of their pieces are glittering rainbow masterpieces. They feature work in various shades of gold, and silver.

As far as Luxury brands go, this is the one that charges forward with candor and abandon. It is fearless, creative, wild, and unique. Their designs simply don't take "no" for an answer.

CHARLES KRYPELL

Charles Krypell takes a more conceptual approach to his work. Whereas most designers focus on pushing jewelry into new frontiers, Krypell takes a step back, and re-designs the box.

First off, he not only focuses on the outside of his work, but on the inside as well. He believes that his work should be enjoyed from every single angle. Most jewelry have ugly undersides meant to be hidden when worn. Krypell's work is a pleasure to behold from any view point, and equally comfortable to wear.

Secondly, he focuses on collections. He's not interested in people picking up single pieces, but rather, a group of them that work in unison. He caters more to collectors, rather than jewelry wearers. He likes to take a theme, and evolve it as it goes from one piece of his collection to another. He weaves a story by a progression from the start of an ensemble to the end. If one purchases only one piece of this group, then they are missing out on the rest of the story. It is like starting a book from the middle. It makes no sense.

Thirdly, he plays with the kind of materials and things can serve as a centerpiece for his jewelry. Classically, the centerpiece would be a big gem. However, Krypell started playing around with compound jewels, and metals as the centerpiece. He will create something that thematically resembles an insect eye - tons of smaller jewels coming to gather to act like a whole. Or, he will use something matte, to counter the glossiness of the rest of the materials in his piece. Like a tinted metal, for example.

His jewelry is balanced, complicated, and wise. A phenomenal additional to any serious collection.

ASCH & GROSSBARDT

 

 

 

The Asch and Grossbardt family are masters at creating fine inlaid gold jewelry.Gems are set carefully into place, then polished down to create fantastic graphical patterns of color and clarity in a technique known as Inlay. It is a very rare technique used in jewelry, and one ash and Grossbardt handle magnificently. Each gem's unique structure and profile creates an otherworldly effect when inlaid together. Some have opaque pearly features, while others appear as small geometric pools of never-ending colors.

SCOTT KAY

Scott Kay is one of the most dynamic designers around. Like a big jungle cat, his work exudes its own powerful magnetic pull.

His work burns with its own internal fire. He is an attentive metalsmith and allows his materials to show him the way to his finalized designs. He is also an astute designer. He creates confident and bold lines and contours that guide your eyes across it like a hot knife across butter. He respects his materials, and they respect him back.

His jewelry - both for men and women - is very masculine. Jewelry, being an art form targeted primarily towards women, leaves most designers a little lost when designing for men. Men mostly get watches. Scott Kay is one of the few designers who creates pieces that adorn a man in a classy and elegant way, leaving him polished and in command.

Aside from being an accomplished designer, he is also responsible for the resurgence of platinum. He has one countless awards in his work with platinum, and is one of the world's leaders in platinum jewelry.

One honestly cannot praise his work enough. He is one of the top dogs in the luxury jewelry market, and one who verily deserves it.

TRIANON

Trianon is a bit of an enigma in the jewelry world. The pieces are colorful, dynamic, playful, yet they are also modest and reserved. The shapes and patterns are very simple, almost always using circles and orbs. However the colors and materials and the textures they provide create a lot of life for the jewelry. This juxtaposition between basic design and inventive use of materials makes for a very fine line of jewelry.

Wood, coral, and shell is part of Trianon's vast material repertoire. There is a collection of wooden cuff bracelets studded with corrals, gemstones, and inlaid shell and 18K gold. Trianon also has a collection of semiprecious gem beaded bracelets. They come in pairs where the colors are inverted. Trianon also has a vast drop earring and round earring collection. Elegantly combined colors and textures really bring them out.

Trianon pieces are beautiful, playful, modest, and elegant. An absolute treasure just begging to be a part of your collection.

DINO DI MODOLO

Dino Di Modolo started out as a watchmaker, but wanted to do much more. As one of the younger brands in the Milan luxury jewelry market, Dino Di Midolo was able to stand out and rise fast. HIs inventive nature and precision in design made him one of the favorites. His designs are simple in shape, but he textures most of his 18K gold jewelry with pave diamonds, adding an extra glitter to his work. His designs are mostly curvilinear, often following circles, tear drops, and undulating chains.

His most unique mark  would have to be his Triada collection. He features a bowed out pyramid (a triangular circle? or a circular triangle?) and showcases it in lovely ways as rings, bracelets, and necklaces.  He now shows in Italy, the United States, Russia, Japan, and Dubai.

CARTIER

Declared by a Prince of Whales as the "Jeweler to Kings, and King of Jewelers," Cartier is a formidable French luxury jewelry and watch brand. It is also one of the oldest. The Cartier family began their work in the 1850's. As supplier to royal courts such as Russia, Greece, Egypt, and Spain, the work of the Cartier family became an international jewelry brand for the following century.

Cartier is most known for its exquisite watches. Even today, Cartier brand watches retain their regal legacy and perfect time keeping. The ability to own jewelry and watches that were originally designed for royalty, is truly a great gift!