From long-established design house Lanvin comes this startling accessory; a collar. The material is a wool-cotton mix, weaved in such a way it feels and looks like felt. It is cut like felt, and at the edges it gently frays into whispers of fuzz. The colour is a rather arresting violet, yet as a background for the jewels, it works fantastically.
The jewels are glass, cut and bevelled with gem precision. Their arrangement around the collar is homage to Art Deco jewellery designs of the 1930s where sinuous lines, threads, beadwork and syncopated loops come out to play.
The work is from New Zealand designer Frances Howie who won the world’s most sought-after student design prize – the Smirnoff –in 2001. She later joined Lanvin’s head designer, Alber Elbaz, as part of his small team and it was within this atelier that the work was created.
The collar rests on a jacket from Dries Van Noten where fine metal thread drawn through silk leads the eye into a spangled, shimmering atmosphere.
The items are at Scotties, 4 Blair Street, Wellington.
