Transcript
|Maria Doulton: This is my first time at the Couture Show Las Vegas. Now, there are some 250 exhibitors here, and they're very carefully selected, and thousands of retailers from all around the world come, so it's not the biggest jewellery show in the States, but certainly one of the most interesting and diverse. I spent three days looking at some incredible jewellery, and talking to some very interesting people, and I've chosen five of them who I think sum up the diversity, richness and originality of this show.
Coomi is one of the brands that I first met in Las Vegas at the Couture Show, and I was immediately attracted to Coomi, both as a person and of course her jewels. Coomi talks about spirituality, about history, and all of this comes through in her jewels.
Coomi: We take arrowheads that are 20,000 years old, and then we combine them with the ancient cave paintings from that period; man's first art. It's beautifully compressed into jewellery.
Maria: I've known Alessio Boschi for many years, but he has come to Vegas Couture for the first time with his own brand. He creates these little fantasy worlds out of the most amazing gemstones, and I am just absolutely fascinated by the stories that are told in these jewels.
Alessio Boschi: I am from Rome. I consider myself a little bit baroque, so I want to bring back this ludic element through colour and through multi-functionality. You can use a necklace as a brooch, and then it's a ring, and then you change and it's a pendant. I mean, it's a world of discovery.
Maria: Stephen Webster, the British jewellery designer, has been coming to Couture for 15 years. Stephen has been making men's jewellery for a long time, but what's different about this jewellery is that it's moving away from that slightly rebel rock and roll look, and he's heading for something that's a lot more sophisticated, and it's a very clever concept.
Stephen Webster: Guys like the sort of things that you need to explain. You start talking about craftsmanship, technicalities; you've got their attention. That's been owned by the watch business, so that's the way we're going.
Maria: Holly Dyment is a jeweller from Toronto. She does something that's very different; I haven't seen anything else like it. On top of it, she's using a very traditional technique, which is enamelling, and she has these made in Jaipur, plus things like she uses skulls inspired by her time in Mexico. When she brings them all together, they're colourful, they're quirky, and they're a lot of fun, much like Holly herself.
Holly Dyment: Every day of the week has a different colour, has a different planet, gemstones. The most fun would be Saturday because it's the most expensive, it has the most gemstones in the hair, and it's the most fun.
Maria: Believe it or not, I am wearing a pair of earrings that are in fact pigs' ears, and on my finger I have a pig ring, and there could only have been one person who made this jewel: Lydia Courteille from Paris. I've chosen to include Lydia because her work is so highly original. She makes things that she likes, and because they are so beautifully made and so quirky, they find an owner.
Lydia Courteille: If I want to pretend to be an artist, I have to be provocative. I love to show to the people new things, new ways to wear the pieces. They say, "What is my influence?" Is it George Orwell? Is it Marie Antoinette?" I say, "Why not both?"
