JUVELAN Bridal Jewelry is the perfect choice for the modern bride made with high quality materials and love for detail. We would like to know more about how the jewelry is made and the person who brings the pieces to life. Therefore, JUVELAN Designer, Johann Vandamme give us an inside look on how he creates his jewelry starting from the initial inspiration, to the production and photoshoots.
Johan Vandamme, JUVELAN Founder & Designer
The process usually begins many months before the launch of the finished jewelry – in the case of ELLIPSE, even a whole year before.
THE INSPIRATION
Like everything in life, a new jewelry collection starts with an idea, an inspiration. For ELLIPSE, it was a specific shape that I encountered daily in various places in our Stuttgart store: the elegant and flowing shape of an ellipse.
“You encounter it as a design element in various places in our Stuttgart store. And since this space has a very calming effect on me, the ellipse became my first inspiration and the starting point for the new collection. I then complement the ideas that arise in my head with visual inspiration images to create a mood board, which then serves as a source of reference during the subsequent creative process.”
THE DEVELOPMENT
The ideas from my head end up as drawn sketches on paper – first as rough scribbles, then as detailed drawings including information on the sizes of the freshwater pearls and crystals. While the right materials are selected in our Stuttgart studio, several rounds of coordination follow with our manufactory, which realizes various elements for us. As soon as all details are fixed, we develop the first patterns. This is how the collection comes to life step by step from paper.
Of course, not all the jewelry is oval – I was more concerned that the flowing clarity and harmonious curves of an ellipse should be reflected sometimes very clearly, sometimes very subtly in the individual designs of the new collection.
THE PHOTOSHOOT
This time we photographed our collection in a modern Düsseldorf studio – on the hottest day of the year in July 2022! Together with our great team of highly talented people, we brought the vision to life there with the help of dreamlike photos.
Bina Terré has been accompanying us for several years as a photographer and was also there this time to perfectly stage and photograph each piece of jewelry with her wonderful eye for details. This time the styling was done by Maria Overrath, who made our two models shine with her perfect sense for bridal styling and natural but glamorous make-up looks. Besides our beloved Aline Byrtus, this time Soso Nozuka was also there as a fantastic model – and we couldn’t have imagined better women who presented the new collection with so much naturalness and tender beauty. Last but not least, my right and left hands Janine and Andreana completed the team. Not only were they with us from the beginning during the development of the collection, helping to think up and implement all the ideas, but Janine also supported us on set, making sure that everything was perfectly prepared in the background and that the shoot went like clockwork. We styled the collection with the gorgeous dresses from Anna Kara through our partner Brautpunkt, as well as fantastic shoes from Hello Lovely Shoes.
Are you ready to discover the collection for yourself and fall in love with the detailed jewelry pieces?
You can discover them here, or in our Stuttgart store, where you can try on all your favorites at your leisure. Alternatively, selected pieces of the collection can be found in our partner boutiques.