New @ Public Image PR : BERNARD DELETTREZ

Bernard Delettrez designs jewelry for people who have everything, but who want something they can’t find anywhere else. Iconic symbols and inventions come together in pieces that are both timeless and maverick.

The collection is fuelled by his taste for unique stones sourced worldwide, research into antique jewelry constructions and talismans from Egyptian Ankh crosses to the finest, most intricate chains, and the usual combinations he creates.

Working in 18k and 9k gold, silver and bronze, Delettrez has an epicurean appetite for gemstones from violet sapphires to the extraordinary and rare purple-edged blue tanzanite found only in East Africa’s Tanzania. He’s attracted to stones “that provoke an emotion,” and he seeks out the ones others have yet to use, an occupation which keeps him travelling all over the world. “If a red tourmaline troubles me more than a Burmese ruby, I will use the tourmaline,” says Delettrez. Transparent emeralds, rainbow fluorite, natural colored diamonds (pale pinks, blue, bright yellow, orange, green and cognac brown), pearls (chocolate, green, gold, grey and black) and pink coral show this season, but his tastes evolve continually along with his discoveries.

For SPRING/SUMMER 2011 Delettrez opens the curiosity cabinet wide to explore the symbols in our collective consciousness starting with skulls which he hand carves in coral and tops with intricate colored pave crowns, joker’s caps and turbans, or silhouettes in flat gold for chains; Skeletal hands clasp miniature gem orbs for rings; pendants and necklaces take the form of ornate, jewel-encrusted keys and crosses: Greek, Maltese, patriarchal, Tau, Neolithic and Ankh; scarabs, butterflies and skeletons dangle from intricate gold cord rings and earrings. The common denominator here is movement and so a delicate chain of skeletons is articulated. Inspired by Benedictine devotional scapulars, Delettrez has designed his own two-sided necklace featuring a diamond headed emerald key on the front with a diamond-frames keyhole in the back. And his frequent travels in Africa are the source for his take on the ‘elephant hair’ bracelet in a unique mix of gold and nylon strands.