The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) had organised the annually held Design Inspirations seminar on February 16, the last day of the IIJS Signature 2020. 

As it has over the past years, this edition too was anchored by the world renowned Paola De Luca, Founder and Head of The Futurist Ltd, both of whom have made a name for themselves in the jewellery trend forecasting arena.

This year a new – at least in the extent it was applied – dimension was added to the seminar. Having understood that jewellery design is neither an isolated pursuit, nor something which should merely be thoughtlessly reproduced generation after generation, the persons responsible for the seminar from the Council, no doubt with the able assistance of Paola herself, had fashioned a daylong event at which several people from diverse fields addressed the audience. The idea was to emphasise that an eclectic approach to design made it that much richer; and a cross-pollination of ideas from different areas would certainly help revitalise the field of jewellery design.

Vice Chairman of the GJEPC, Colin Shah, in his welcome speech, said, “The prime function of the organisation, as an Export Promotion Council, is to work towards increasing exports. The main focus this year, and in the next few years to come, will be to ensure that we increase value addition as well. We are of the opinion that this goal can be realised with an emphasis on design and taking that to the next level, as well as by applying technology to the process of jewellery making which will result in greatly enhancing its quality.”

He said that the Council was taking various initiatives on the design front to ensure that the bar was raised substantially. The Artisan Jewellery Design Awards, recognising design talent (the winners of which had been declared only a couple of days earlier), was one such. On the other hand, there was the effort for the proliferation of the training institutes to skill and upskill designers and the workforce of the jewellery sector, he remarked. Students of the IIGJ had also been demarcated a special space to showcase their designs and talent. They had received a very good response, with companies showing interest in their collections and also showing an interest in placing them in their organisations. 

Paola’s presentation was titled: “Cracks: Design Inspiration 2020”. Her presentation was based on a quote of Ernest Hemingway which goes: “We are all broken, that’s how the light gets in.” The cracks representing difficulties, challenges and ultimately the route for enlightenment and solutions was something some speakers referred to, to illustrate their points in the course of the day.

In her opening remarks, Paola said that the jewellery industry worldwide was going through many changes, including the advent of digital communication, of changing values, an identity shift and so on. She opined that a cross culture vision was necessary for all industries. All these changes were throwing up many questions, she felt.

“But we have to take every big challenge as a big opportunity,” she said. “It is necessary for us as designers to keep our minds open and remain alert to all that is going on around us.”

After expounding on the various changes taking place, she said: “We don’t need jewellery we need dreams, we need stories, emotions. Jewellers should understand this and take this forward to their consumers.” 

She also emphasised the need to learn from as many diverse fields as take in influences from them.

The first segment of the day was dedicated to the topic: “Social Paradigm Shifts”

Ash Allibhai, the international Content ad Fashion Director for ASBO magazine, gave a fascinating insight into the world of fashion, which is a US$ 1.66 trillion industry producing about 100 billion garments annually. 

The biggest concern of the industry today, he said, was sustainability, as the industry had a large carbon footprint and was also a very polluting industry. He spoke of the efforts being made by the fashion industry to address these concerns.

Rishab Anupam Sahay, a filmmaker, speaking on “Cross Pollination between Design & Cinema” provided glimpses of the present day world, its changing dynamics and changing consumption patterns and noted therefore, the need for changing the ways of catering to their various requirements.

Narendra Kumar, Creative Director at Amazon India stressed that not all students graduating out of design institutes would necessarily be successful. Success, he stressed, depended on three factors: 1) Passion in what they are doing to the point of obsession 2) Conviction of who you are as a person, and this also colours passion and 3) Evolution – you must be relevant to the time you live in.

The next two speakers were clubbed under the topic: “Sustainable Beings”.

Thomas Lazzarini, a Private Client Personal Shopper at Farfetch, delved into the concept of luxury which he stressed could mean different things to different people. The challenge lay in pinpointing what this meant for various segments and catering to them.

Shreyas More, an architect and interior designer is part of the Green Charcoal Project. He gave a masterly presentation on “materials” and the research of his team at Green Charcoal Project – which as its name suggests is all about being sustainable and environment friendly – to develop alternative materials, which could be used in the course of his work for building /interiors purposes.

The session on “Heritage and Values” began with two sisters – Fluer Damman Van Gelder and Noelle Vigurris Van Gelder – providing a fascinating glimpse into their company Van Gelder Jewellery, which was set up by their mother Bernadette. The unique aspect of the company is that it was founded based on Indian jewellery which Bernadette would pick up during her travels in this country and then sell in the Netherlands where she belonged.

Despite a severe injury sustained in an accident, Fleur manages to be pivotal in the design process of the company, and has now launched a contemporary collection, but one which is also inspired by India, and Indian motifs.

Kirti Poonia, part of Tata Administrative Services (TAS) has devoted her efforts towards empowering and protecting ancient crafts under the banner of Okhai. She started in 2015 with 350 women in Gujarat and today Okhai impacts 1600 women across the country.  

The last segment of the day was “Design Futures” covered by Saikat Mitra and Akash Das.   

Mitra is the Creative Director Van Heusen, and Vice President Design  of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited, while Das is the Creative Director at MeWeStudioX. Both are into merchandising, branding and marketing and provided glimpses of catering to the new consumer.

Paola ended the day with a presentation on the changing consumer, by raising a number of pertinent questions and points.

“Cultural Diversity, experiential luxury, storytelling, and digital culture seem very far from the traditional ways of trading and selling diamonds,” she remarked. 

The Millennials and Gen Z were concerned about the Planet, amongst other things, and not so concerned about “perfection”, she felt. They were much more prepared to accept the “imperfect” the things “with cracks” and that has opened an entire panorama for the industry.

Pic Cap: Colin Shah (ext lft) seen with the Van Gelder sisters Fleur (ext rt) and Noelle 2nd frm rt) and Shreyas More (2nd fm lft)