You living jewel - jewel-colored fashion designs

Interview, Dec, 1997 by Walter Chin

In nineteenth-century Europe, it was not uncommon to show your affection for someone by making a gift of a small piece of jewelry - a ring, say, or a locket - that spelled the word regard (the word is literally encoded in the jewel, and is spelled out by taking the first letter of each stone, starting with a ruby, the r, and ending with a diamond, the d). At a time when feelings were generally shared as indirectly as possible, these bits of jewelry offered a kind of secret code for expressing one's affection. And then there was the respect ring - less common than its more popular cousin, regard, these tokens of affection were created on the same principle, i.e., using the placement and selection of stones to spell out the gift-bearer's message: respect.

While it's easy to imagine a nineteenth-century recipient being infinitely happier with the message implicit in regard than with the one in respect, time, of course, has played its usual tricks. Today, on a scale of emotional weightiness, respect carries with it all the force and significance of modern life. With that in mind, we set out to create our own jewel inspired by the season's jewel-colored fashion. It's our message to you for the end of the year.