For jewellery designer Bernard James – who is partnering with Dover Street Market New York on a collection to mark the store’s tenth anniversary – flora is a source of creativity, curiosity, and wonder. Inspired by the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, a stone's throw from his childhood home in Crown Heights, he reimagines the beauty of daisies, hellebores, and petunias through gold and diamonds.
Although James’ work has transcended the neighbourhood – he has a presence in New York’s famed 47th St Diamond District in midtown Manhattan and a burgeoning international following of high-jewellery connoisseurs – his Brooklyn roots are never far away. Here, he speaks to Wallpaper* from his dedicated storefront in Greenpoint Brooklyn.
