Accessories complete an outfit and are many people’s preferred platform for showing off the individual and unusual. This year’s young fashion accessories talents place the materials firmly in the foreground and offer exciting, clever interpretations.
Jeans forever!
Denim started their career as a fabric used to make trousers for working men. This hard-wearing material was the ideal thing for real guys. These times are long past, of course, and you can now wear jeans to the opera, and almost every haute couture house uses denim in its fashions. However, the material has so far rarely strayed into the world of jewellery – until, that is, Angelo Verga discovered its potential. Originally trained as a goldsmith, Verga combines denim with resin and the combination is then pressed, oiled and cut to make rings, earrings and brooches. If you run your finger over the jewellery, you can feel the fineness and solidity of the material.
Verga actually takes the denim theme a step further. Typical jeans features are incorporated into finely crafted one-off items of pure silver. There are zip rings in which the zip actually opens and closes, and the jeans double seam is used to give form and structure to earrings. Originally from Milan, Verga is now a resident of Münster/Germany and is delighted to live in a town with a love of culture. As an example, he cites the “Sculpture Projects” exhibition, which has been held every ten years since 1977.
In the silken jungle
She comes from a family of artists and has been painting since the age of just 10 years old – but not on paper. Instead she uses the finest silk which is then transformed into softly flowing foulards or trendy bags. The process requires a sure hand. First of all, Camila Velvet creates a black outline of the design and then fills in the empty areas with powerful, lively colours that she mixes herself.
The motifs come from the jungle and it’s their depiction in such a clean, reduced but warm style that makes these pieces so modern. Whether bamboo, tiger’s head or stylised exotic flowers – the unusual colour combinations simply radiate happiness. You feel like going to a cocktail party with one of Camila Velvet’s clutches tucked under the arm. The Museum Shop at Balenciaga Museum stocks some of her pieces and she has also created designs for the Madrid label Alvarno. A successful start for the young designer.
Exercise made easy
These sneakers aren’t designed for comfort – but they certainly are comfortable. A contradiction? No way. In her thesis at the University of Pforzheim, accessory designer Michaela Hahn tackled a similarly paradoxical subject of ‘Collecting / Collecting Experiences’ out of which subsequently emerged the Rope Dynamic sneaker from Sui Generis Accessory. The sneaker is made from leather plus neoprene sock plus rubber sole plus a bit of paracord. With footwear of this sort there’s no problem tackling country walks, urban landscapes or night clubs.
Michaela Hahn is assisted by Josefine Rietzke who is responsible for the business side of the venture. They go back a long way and first met during their school days. Being networked is a matter of course for the two women. In fact, it was the positive feedback from social networks that finally spurred them to establish the label in 2016. The first collection focuses on footwear, but expansion into the fields of bags and rucksacks is on the cards. The overall look is consciously androgynous. ‘Sui generis’ means ‘in a class of its own/unique’ and one aspect of this non-conformist approach is the rejection of gender stereotypes. Another aspect is the emphasis on being active – do your own thing!
