Art for Wear

Some of my favorite jewelry have been ones which challenge the idea of what the object can be and bring it daringly to another level of potential.  Although temporary, jewelry can be like a tatoo, a branding of one’s own expression and beliefs.  Here are a few of my favs jewelry designers whom attempt to do so.

Artist Tom Binns has been designing, manufacturing and distributing jewelry for over twenty-five years.  Binns was and remains inspired by the early twentieth century Dada movement, the main theme of which includes deliberate irrationality, anarchy, and the rejection of standard beauty and social organization.

Some of my favorite jewelry by Binns are his archival pieces,  handcrafted, one-of-a-kind couture pieces which all unite elegance with anarchy. The materials used for these pieces range from anything to everything, precious and non-precious, at times featuring materials such as sea glass and reconstituted costume jewelery.  These pieces  for sure inspire and engage his other collections.  Binns has been a pioneer and leader to some more thoughtful jewelry designers. As well as the lazy, Mr. Binns’ utterly unique jumbled clusters of gem were very much copied over and over again this past year.

As far as high-impact jewelry design goes Binn’s up there.  Another recent favy has been Eddie Borgo his cleaner, tougher wares offer a bold new chapter. Although his jewelry looks a little too trendy; it will be interesting to see how this designer fares in the future. He’s been one of the designers at the helm of the spikes-and-studs movement, debuting his first collection just a year ago alongside Phillip Lim. Since then, the NYC-based Borgo has skyrocketed, leading to a CFDA nomination and custom collections for Marchesa, Frank Tell, and Joseph Altuzarra . I’m a bit jealous.

I titled this post Art for Wear because I really believe in jewelry and some design objects as art.  I know some disagree with me, holding onto the stance Art is Art and Design is Design.  But, I believe the lines between art and design can be blurred: I’m not saying Eddie Borgo is doing this, or that Tom Binns has mastered it, but simply engaging the idea that it is possible. Murray Moss once said, ”Art was meant to be regarded, design was meant to be used.  Our perception and our means of evaluating art and design have changed….The people making art and design are willfully crossing that fine line, appropriating all that they can freely grasp, and in doing so, freeing us from our simplistic, systematic way of categorizing work, and demanding of us a more complex reaction.”

If you have a chance make your way to Moss store in NYC, they have a bunch of Tom Binn’s archival work up temporarily, and it is truly magical.

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