The introduction of Byredo fine jewellery as a permanent fixture sees the brand expand its already wonderful world – which spans fragrance, Wallpaper* Award-winning make-up, leather goods, homeware, a Milan Design Week 2023 collaboration with Dozie Kanu, and more. Designed around a series of foundational archetypes that riff on the ideas of piercing and adornment, the collection builds on Byredo’s core principles of individual ornamentation and self-expression, as well as on an earlier foray into jewellery with Charlotte Chesnais.
Byredo fine jewellery, ‘Virasaat’ collection
Founder Ben Gorham says, ‘I built Byredo to be anything – that’s the beauty of it; we don’t fit into one category or one definition, and when there is an idea that can’t be bottled into a perfume, we are free to express it in other ways. What’s been really nice, and has always been the case with Byredo, is that we’ve set our own type of cadence. When you have a large part of your business through direct channels and have spent many years engaging with a multitude of communities, it allows you to launch things when and how you want.
‘Launching this new permanent jewellery category deeply relates to my background,’ he continues. ‘When I think about jewellery, it’s more about the reflection on how those pieces connect to me, my memories, and my personal experiences: it was mainly about my mother, my grandmother, and India, where jewellery is something you pass down through generations – the name of the debut collection, “Virasaat”, meaning “inheritance”, embodies this concept. This collection also echoes hip-hop’s cultural influence that I [grew up] with in the 1990s – and its incredible fascination with jewellery.’
A pair of central motifs – rounded pearl forms interlocked with industrial bars – create a pattern that can be repeated and extended endlessly. Applied to necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings that have been exquisitely crafted in Italy from silver and gold, the forms almost appear fluid in their repetitive rhythm.
‘The collection is really a collective work between me and my creative team at our studio in Stockholm,’ Gorham says. ‘I really wanted to design products inspired by my own memories and made to endure: totemic objects, to be passed down from generations to the next ones.’
That personal connection carries through to the rich imagery that accompanies the launch of the ‘Virasaat’ collection. ‘India has a very personal and intimate meaning to me, and there are many of my memories and odes to India woven into our collections. For our campaign, we worked with photographer Ashish Shah, who previously worked with Byredo on our Mumbai Noise campaign back in 2021,’ he says. ‘I was drawn to Ashish because of the modernity and reality of his work and his distinct lens on his home country India.’
The new collection launches today, exclusively at Byredo's Paris boutique, 199 rue Saint Honoré, 75001 Paris, and will be available from global flagship boutiques from 25 January 2024.
