On The Design Boat

Friday 1 August 2014

A S T Y L E S T A T E M E N T

Text: Hina Nitesh

Diamonds and rubies, silver and gold – can you think beyond this when someone mentions jewellery??

The person on OTDB today is a Jewellery Designer who fashions out exquisite style statements in fabric.

In the hands of Nadia Dafri, the Paris based designer, fabric is not a limp material that takes the shape of the person who wears it. On the other hand, just like a magician who performs the rope trick, fabric allows her to mold it into the most unthinkable of ways.

In some pieces, it snakes around the neck in layers, while in others sensually brushes past. Fabric offers flexibility and the inherent patterns in the fabric add to the visual imagery. Each individual piece has a raw appeal to it.

The conventional way of looking at a necklace is a piece that it worn around the neck but Dafri breaks away from such traditional ideas and as a result her pieces are more than just what they are supposed to be.

A neck piece might cover the shoulders or might be large enough to reach the waist. Similarly an ear ring is not just for the ear but can cover the head as well.

The pieces are huge and look over powering but I guess it required for them to stand out from the rest of the clothes. Also worth a mention is the way the pieces are modeled and photographed which adds to the visual appeal of the individual pieces. Big and chunky when viewed individually, they seem to caress the person who adorns them.

I'll leave you with some images from the designer's collection...