Team ELLE has a new jewellery obsession – the beautifully sculpted creations by London’s latest rising star, Jordan Askill.
We should first point out that, while he may be cutting a swathe through the London scene, Jordan Askill is not in fact British. Instead he hails from Australia, and he studied his trade at Sydney’s Institute of Technology. While it’s jewellery that has propelled him onto the fashion radar, when Jordan first started out in the business it was ready to wear that had his heart. His first job was working with his friends at cool antipodean denim label Ksubi. And he followed it up by moving to Paris and working for three years under Hedi Slimane during his legendary tenure at Dior Homme.
These days a studio in London is the base for Askill’s eponymous jewellery line. Launched in 2008, it caught the eye of the capital’s fashion insiders, and landed Askill much-coveted NEWGEN sponsorship last year. And we are, quite frankly, obsessed.
Take a close look at the intricate detail in the waves of horses and leaping panthers that feature in his collections and it will come as no surprise that his design process doesn’t just involve the usual artful sketching. He’s as passionate about sculpture as he is jewellery design, and the large, nature-inspired works that he creates are the inspiration for his fashion-forward pieces. Seriously techno-savvy, he digitally scans the sculptures and shrinks them down to make bangles, pendants and rings, creating, quite literally, miniature works of art.
Such dedication and hard-work doesn’t come cheap – his mainline pieces are what we like to refer to as investment buys. But those of us without a hefty bank balance are in luck – this year he also launched a diffusion line, Jordy by Jordan Askill, a clutch of dainty heart and star shaped rings that we’ve been lusting after for months.
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