A new trinket: a piece of clear quartz trapped in a silver lattice and suspended on a long chain. It’s by Lady Grey, one of my favourite jewellery labels (it fits in well alongside other Orchestra favourites such as Julia de Ville and Pamela Love). Their current collection Sacred Geometry combines geometric shapes with mystical semi-precious stones – quartz, pyrite and the like. Pyramids and crosses are recurring themes, the loaded shapes are at once religiously significant as well as clean, mathematical forms. Past collections Mortality, Metallurgy, Anatomy and Nature give you an idea of the designers’ preoccupations – religious symbology, the human body, natural forms and the occult.
I’m dying to add to more pieces to my collection.
An ankle-grazing cardigan should be de rigueur in every wardrobe, especially a cardigan with tiny, perfect details – holes to put your thumbs through; an oversized hood; deep pockets for hiding occult necessities.
Jacket by Just Jeans, cardigan by oneteaspoon, silk top by The Doll’s Boutique, sass & bide Rats, Sam Edelman Zoe boots.
(mini goldengate panorama by Casey Holford)
Exactly one month from today, I will be boarding a plane to San Francisco.
I’ve been working up a lengthy to-do list, filled with vegetarian restaurants, taxidermy specialists and well-edited boutiques. I’m going to be staying in the Haight Ashbury (that centre of eccentricity), next door to a comic book shop and a couple of blocks away from what is reputedly the greatest record store in the world.
If you have any tips or advice on what to do, where to shop and the like, do please let me know.
Nevermore 2010: stillborn fawn, black garnet beads, sterling silver, coque feathers, chain mail
Sophie Gannon Gallery, 2 Albert Street, Richmond, Victoria
Yet another reason to miss Melbourne – taxidermy-queen Julia de Ville has a new exhibition. Provocative and macabre, de Ville’s work spans across jewellery, wearables and sculpture, but never strays too far from her dark aesthetic.
Combining elements of fine jewellery with the taxidermic remains of animals, de Ville explores our relationship to death and the deceased. The beauty of her work is always slightly uncomfortable; death made visible. Taking cues from Victorian mourning jewellery, de Ville does not mean to offend, but rather to enshrine.
All the animals used in de Ville’s work die of natural causes. She is a vegetarian and a supporter of animal rights. By foregrounding the un-aliveness of the animals, de Ville reminds us of our own mortality, suggesting that if we accept our own mortality, we learn to appreciate the significance of our own lives – and the lives of others.
It may not satisfy my sense of aesthetics as completely as wearing RGBSTEEL on my nails, but Rimmel London’s Grey Matter is pretty impressive. I think I’ll be wearing this shade a lot, especially come spring.
Rings (L – R): a gift; from the Chinatown Night Market in Sydney; by Wendy Nichol; from the Paddington Markets.
