Michelle Jank Teams Up With Fairfax & Roberts
A Young Designer and High-End Jeweller Collaborate
Nov 8, 2009
Perth-raised, Paris-based designer Michelle Jank is just one of those types who have a certain X-factor. The fact that she has popped up on the uber-hip Sartorialist fashion blog a few times – once wearing one of her trademark fabric flower necklaces – only adds to her sense of cool.
She was the darling of Australian Fashion Week in 2000 and has had a colourful and varied career in the field ever since, including working as a model, consultant, stylist and jewellery designer (selling her trinkets to the swanky Browns of London, no less). She returned to Australian Fashion Week in 2008, launching a line of jewellery – for the first time, with clothing.
Her collaboration with Fairfax & Roberts
Jank’s name has cropped up again in '09 – this time in a collaboration with Sydney's leading couture jewellers Fairfax and Roberts. And, on pieces that could put a home loan-sized hole in your bank account.
Her bespoke suite with the jewellery house comprises a necklace, bracelet and ring in the first of a series of ranges, which will be created in the Fairfax & Roberts' Castlereagh St workshop in Sydney, Australia - all under Jank’s unique design direction.
Large and impressive shapes - a signature of her work - are ever-present in the collection that employs 18-carat white gold, diamonds, pink tourmaline, aquamarine, citrine and topaz.
Vintage inspiration
Jank looked to yesteryear for inspiration. “Vintage costume jewellery is particularly inspiring because it was created during a time when people really experimented with scale, a signature of my work. I like working backwards to go forwards - reworking classical vintage costume pieces to give them new life as something precious and enticing.”
Further, she says: "For Fairfax and Roberts I have celebrated the cycle of design using vintage pieces sourced from markets in London and Paris. I love the idea that they have a history; they tell a story. I also like pieces that tell a story or that are a reminder of someone, a place or a time. I will be creating pieces that can be personalised and added to so customers can expand and individualise their collection pieces.”
Style icons
When designing, Jank’s inspirations included British society and style icon Daphne Guinness, who is a collector of haute couture and statement jewellery pieces (and more recently a perfumer for Comme des Garsons), and British designer Charles James, whose ball gowns were created in the ‘40s and '50s.
Of course, for many, Jank is herself a style inspiration. She was proudly chosen by Fairfax & Roberts as one of Australia's leading creative talents and personifies eclectic elegance. And, the jewellery collaboration, no doubt you will agree, is simply gorgeous.
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