MILAN–We’ve been curious about meeting Sveva Camurati, the designer behind Sveva Collection, since spotting her modernista designs dangling from the necks of some of Milan’s most daring divas. Couture chokers and necklaces made out of crystals, intricate hand made embroidery, as well as outrageous materials that include folded fans of PVC, flashing led lights, rock climbing rope and plastic fishing bait…

Let’s be honest… only a real Milanese with fashion pumping through her veins, can take gummy, jelly, hardware-store-bought bait and resurrect it into something couture worthy.

Indeed, Sveva’s first encounter with the fashion world occurred in her grandmother’s atelier. After a pursuing acting and interior design in New York City, she returned home and eventually started her brand Sveva Collection.

“I didn’t need a fashion degree. I just learned by DOING things,” the mother of two told BACO, in her studio that is a jaw-dropping shrine of craftsmanship, creativity and just the right dose of excess.  Many of her pieces are held together with chains and filigree and hundreds of set stones and beads, requiring unlimited patience and mechanical know-how.

“I spend a lot of time at the hardware store. I love the hardware store,” Sveva said, noting that she makes all of the prototypes – working out the engineering from A to Z – most of the time by herself.  Folk, sci-fi, pop, dadaism are all artistic influences that have driven her own path as an artist and designer.

Her brand really took off, she explained, about two years ago, after upmarket labels like Marni and Lanvin  paved the way for statement jewellery. Now Sveva’s pieces are sold in upscale shops worldwide like Biffi and Banner Boutique in Milan, Kisan Soho in New York, as well as top e-commerce sites like Polyvore and Farfetch. Unlike other artisanal Italian brands, Sveva’s fashion-forward runway appeal has garnered her attention worldwide, especially in Japan and South Korea, two of her top international markets.

“The women who wear my designs are not scared to be daring. She likes to dream,” she said.

The Sveva Collection spring summer collection for next year is filled with potential icons — elaborate pieces with a regal quality, fashioned with elaborate embroidery made by artisans in Puglia and inspired by empires and historic muses like the Byzantine Empire and Pauline Bonaparte.

“My pieces are truly made with love. That I can say without any doubt,” Sveva said, as she turned our attention to the ultimate conversation piece: “Rehab” is crafted with chains, multicolored beads and plastic pills dangling from the golden fringe. Sophisticated and witty… a lot like Sveva.

“A necklace is very personal because you wear it near your face. You can be having a bad day, but a necklace can counter-balance that and give you light.”

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The Magical World of Sveva, Gabrial Forever Glam: Rocker’s Armor, Pugnetti Parma’s Lift BAG, Lucas de Stael: Made in Paris Eyewear, Serapian: Behind the Doors of a Hollywood Fave , Accessories: Editor’s Picks

PARIS–At a hotel on the southern bank of the River Seine, fashion journalist-turned-jeweler, Delphine Hervieu, explained how 19 natural pearls were intertwined with six sapphires to form a harmonious branch-shaped constellation atop a 18k yellow gold structure that sits on the ear’s edge.

The ear cuff is the hallmark of the first seven-piece collection that she designed with the help of Philippe Airaud, who has worked with names like Yves Saint Laurent, Ungaro and Jean-Louis Scherrer since the 1990s.

Her brand Otzar is the fruit of her passion for jewels, which she further cultivated after completing an intensive course of gemology at the Institut National de Gemmologie, as well as some painting classes she felt were necessary to craft jewelery in the “old fashioned way.”

Paris Correspondent Marianne Dorell chats with Hervieu in the lobby of a Parisian hotel this exclusive “couture” project.

BACO: It is very original and intriguing to discover a jewelry brand with a unique series of seven very different pieces that are different yet harmonious at the same time?  

DH: 
It all really begin with a pure creative impulse: When I started to work on the project, there was no commercial demand, no economic imperatives. So, with my friend Philippe Airaud, whom I asked to collaborate with me on this first series, we felt totally free.

We wanted to create something very original, to do something surprising. We preferred to propose a numbered series. It was interesting to work in a different way, to break the rules. Too often, people get limited and feel like they have to respect the convention but you can do differently.

BACO: 

Why did you choose to propose a series of ear cuffs ? 

DH: I love earrings and especially the “mono earring.” Some jewelers have already proposed their own mono earring but after trying some of them, I discovered the size aspect was problematic because they never totally fit. It has to be “sur-mesure” ear cuffs which is a different product with a high quality service.

BACO: How did you meet Philippe Airaud? Did you first had the jewel final design in mind or the choice of the stones came first ? 

DH: 
I really wanted to pay a tribute to this organic part of the jewel with my first series. So it was all built around the stones. 
Even while I was finishing my gemology class, I started buying some stones when I found beautiful ones or had opportunities. And I didn’t know at that time what I would do with them. 
Then, with Philippe Airaud, we played with them, to arrange them and look for a harmony. Again it was all very intuitive. We worked at Le Café de Flore and played with the stones at my place. And we looked for solutions that involved as few interventions as possible.

BACO: 
There is clearly something that references the surrealism movement, with the presentation of the ear-cuff: is it a tribute? 

DH: 
Each ear cuff of this first series is kept in a suede glove designed by MaisonFabre for Otzar. Held in a white soft leather pouch, each ear cuff is also sold with an ear molding, signed by the designer. The link with surrealism came very naturally: the gesture with the ear-cuff and the glove reminded us of a Buñuel scenario. 



BACO: What’s next for Otzar? 

DH: I am working on a new series that I will present in June, and it will not be earrings this time. I will keep this spirit. It is very stimulating to work on something after garnering such positive feedback, but it is also very challenging since I want to be surprising again. Parallel to that, I am presenting a collection for my second line called Studio 42: the “captured pearl.” This collection is made of natural shells and pearls that have been found off the coast of Tahiti. I love this organic touch and also the fact that each one is very unique.

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WHAT: Otzar, a unique ear-cuff series

AVERAGE PRICE: EUR15,000 to EUR55,000

FOR MORE INFO ON WHERE TO BUY: www.otzar.co, info@otzar.co