Jade Jagger's dagger: why drinks everywhere will be lusting for a spiking

Interview, May, 2008 by Max Blagg

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Jade Jagger spent her adolescence in the wilds of the Upper East Side, attending Spence School and hanging out in Central Park. She was living a real-life version of Kids (1995), and having lots of fun, until her strict English father shipped her to an English boarding school in the wilds of Wiltshire. Jade bounced back beautifully from the brutal culture shock, and when she finally began speaking to other English children in this rural cloister, she started to comprehend her English roots, which are so tenderly entwined with her mother's fiery Nicaraguan pedigree.

By the age of 25, Jagger had two daughters in tow and went looking for a utopian spot where she could peacefully raise them. She discovered the island of Ibiza, which, to her delight, was not entirely a house-music, acid-tripping 24-hour party. Only partly.

Jagger connected with Ibiza's more mystical side and was happy to be surrounded by sea and nature, an ancient spiritual culture, and the new influx of post millennial time travelers. She made the leap from visual art to three-dimensional precious metals. Her appointment as creative director of Garrard jewelers was a breakthrough for the storied English firm as well as for Jagger. She gave huge visibility to a brand few people outside the English upper crust had even heard of. "It was very exciting to bring them into the 21st century," Jagger says. "Hopefully we'll be presenting a new collection at the end of the year."

But she also felt the need to branch out, and Jagger most recently created the "Jagger Ice Dagger" for Belvedere vodka, an instrument that elevates the humble ice pick to new dimensions of bling-a-ling beauty. "We talked with Belvedere about the cultural references surrounding communal drinking, and about ways of cutting ice," she explains. "I then crafted this dagger rather than the usual skinny ice pick." It's a limited edition, all jewel encrusted, with a lapis lazuli-inlaid handle wrapped in white gold. "Daggers have such beautiful, functional shapes," Jagger says, "and decorating them is an ancient tradition."

MAX BLAGG IS A NEW YORK CITY--BASED WRITER. LEFT: JADE JAGGER WITH THE ICE DAGGER SHE DESIGNED FOR BELVEDERE VODKA. PHOTO: TERRY RICHARDSON.