There is the smoke of a cigarette, there is that of a fire, there is that (imaginary) that clouds the brain. But try to grab the smoke. Impossible, at least with your hands. The Dutch designer Bibi van der Velde, on the other hand, has succeeded. But to grab the smoke she had to turn it into jewels. Smoke is the name of the new collection of one of the most imaginative creators of jewelry. It goes without saying that the jewels are a poetic transposition of the swirls of smoke.
The collection’s choker, for example, is designed as a line of smoke that curls elegantly around the neck. It is proposed in two versions: one in simple 18-karat gold and one with diamonds, sapphires and spinels set, or in pure 18-karat white gold and is intertwined with gray stones, composed of white and gray diamonds, white sapphires and gray spinels, for capturing the movement of a plume of smoke. The collection stems from Bibi van der Velde’s explorations of the forms of smoke in sculpture, translated into jewels. An exploration that the designer summarizes in this exchange Oscar Wilde: Do you mind if I smoke? Sarah Bernhardt: I don’t care if you burn.
