When Jackie Onassis returned to New York from Rajasthan in 1969 with an armful of jewelled gold bangles, it spawned a jewellery revival. At the time, socialites and fashionistas regarded the beads and low-grade silver of Indian jewellery best left in places like Haight-Ashbury.
But just as Indian jewellery has seeped into private collections, so too has it influenced contemporary designers.
Traditional Indian shapes (think bells and chandeliers) have become ubiquitous in international bling.
“There is no country in the world that is as inspirational for jewellery design as India,” says New York-based model and designer Manon von Gerkan. “It’s even above ancient Egypt.
The level of craftsmanship that goes into the work is without equal.” Indians use techniques such as placing foil under stones to make them shine more, she says. But what makes India unique is that “all women, regardless of wealth, wear significant amounts of jewellery every day”.
“There is no culture in the world that has a culture of jewellery like India,” says Harry Fane, owner of Mayfair’s Obsidian Gallery. “And none has been as influential on design, not even the Romans or the Chinese.” Fane notes that Pierre Cartier started his love affair with Indian jewellery in 1901 when he created a necklace for Queen Alexandra, empress of India and wife of Edward VII, to wear with gowns sent to her by the wife of the viceroy of India.
“Europeans were becoming acquainted with maharajahs, whose flamboyance had no equal,” says Fane. “In the same period, Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballet Russes staged Schéhérazade, which was [then] perhaps the world’s most important cultural event.” Indeed, it was the blue and green set design of the great ballet that inspired Cartier to set emeralds and sapphires together.
When grandees and socialites brought jewellery back from India, it had to be refitted, says Fane, and Cartier was the leader in adapting motifs to his western clientele. “Because of Cartier’s influence, Indian design and quality seeped into the western jewellery world.”
A new generation of jewellers is updating the tradition.
Gemmologist and designer Mira Jain, who is Delhi-based and California-trained, says her Indian heritage is “what gives me my edge and makes me different” but she chooses “a more au courant setting” with seed pearls and multi-coloured sapphires. “I also love working with obscure stones like kunzite, which loses its pink colour after a while.”
French designer Marie-Hélène de Taillac has had a workshop in the Gem Palace for 10 years and uses Indian gems and materials, but her styling is distinctly up to date.
Witness a necklace called “the scarf” composed of shards of brilliant gemstones dangling in a scarf-like configuration, as well as her much-copied cabochon ring. “I wanted to create something I would wear, something fashionable and young, not pieces like my mother’s,” says de Taillac. “Most importantly, it has to be wearable.
People can’t go around wearing the kind of heavy jewellery that Indians are accustomed to.” She also celebrates Indian culture. Her latest design is a 22-carat Ganesh hanging from a hoop.
India’s spiritual side is also what appeals to Danish designer Mads Kornerup, whose latest line has a thunderbolt motif, drawn from the goddess Indra, and fuses eastern materials with western techniques. His Spinner Ring, for example, is actually two rings ingeniously attached to each other, with one spinning delicately to remind the wearer of the ever-rotating nature of life.
This allegiance of beauty and belief reflects the Gem Palace philosophy that adornment is important and should be available to all, whether nomads or royalty.
It has been run, since it opened in 1852, by the Kasliwal family, who were sought out for their jewel-making expertise by Man Singh, the maharajah of Jaipur, in 1730. Today co-owner and chief designer Munnu Kasliwal encourages both rich and poor, backpackers and Rajasthan villagers, to come in for a browse. Prices start at £1.
The Gem Palace is different from most jewellery retailers in that it covers every facet of production, including mining, goldsmithing, enamelling, gem-cutting, polishing, stringing and setting, design, marketing and retailing.
New Yorkers can admire Gem Palace jewels through a permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And now Londoners can have a glimpse, at the at Somerset House.
The exhibition, ‘Treasures from the Gem Palace’, under the auspices of Harry Fane of Mayfair’s Obsidian Gallery, displays 250 jewels from Kasliwal’s collection (until October 22). The goal is to re-create the atmosphere of the Gem Palace. The “Treasury” area mimics the workshop on the top floor of the Gem Palace, with museum-quality pieces.
Fane describes these ancient gemstones as “super-sexy, really big pieces with a lot of bling”. There will also be “important one-of-a-kind diamond necklaces with significant carat counts”.
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