Rings on their fingers

Bangkoksmiths, the jewellery group that was established three years ago to take Thailand’s jewellery design industry to the world stage, launched the Spring/Summer 2012 collections by four leading designers in a glitzy event on Thursday.
Although completely different in style, Jogema, Matina Amanita, Missile and Trimode Accessories all offered lively and playful concepts with contemporary pieces that are sure to go down well with the fashion conscious crowd.
Jogema’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection has as its theme “The World According to Turtles”. “This collection explores the ancient turtle totem, which has a symbolic meaning for longevity and creation,” says Masiri Tamsakul, Jogema’s designer. A master’s graduate in Visual Communication from George Washington University, Masiri started the Jogema brand five years ago and has flourished thanks to her highly individualistic style.
The collection’s highlights include the 2012 “Shield Ring”, a threedimensional cocktail ring in the form of tortoise’s shell in silver and gold, he “Shield Colour Iron Bracelet”, which plays with the geometric hexagon shapes of a tortoise’s shell and can be combined into a necklace, and a collection of friendship bracelets with Swarovski crystals that bring back youthful memories. All the pieces can be mixed and match and customised according to the customer’s taste.
Another leading contemporary jewellery designer in the Bangkoksmiths group is Matina Sukhahuta, owner of Matina Amanita and the baby sister of fashion sibling trio Sretsis. Wellknown for her fantasy and feminine designs, her Spring/Summer 2012 collection tells the story of Pandora’s Box. Matina takes us on a magical and mysterious tour of the Greek myth and creates a collection of rings featuring such creatures as tiger cubs, baby deer and bunnies as well as pansy, daisy and prairie rose earrings. The collection is designed so that the pieces are interchangeable.
Each piece is carefully calculated and is detachable, allowing it to take different forms and recombine to mix and match with others.
“The baby tiger ring, when coupled with its lion man ring guard, turns into the powerful, roaring king of a jungle while stackable earrings go up to three layers, turning ordinary objects into new found treasures,” Matina says.
The cotton candy colour palette of the semiprecious stones sits beautifully with the gold bands and creates an adolescent theme that is both magical and mysterious.
Trimode Accessories’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection “Love is Like a Desk of Cards” includes a collection that welcomes the month of love. “This collection plays with the theme of love, love is full of risk, challenges and an unexpected future like a game of cards,” says the brand’s designer Pirada Senivongse Na Ayudhya. For this collection, semigeometrical shapes such as hearts, spades, diamond and clubs comes in plain gold and silver.
Last but not least, Missile, a playful contemporary jewellery brand, takes its Spring/Summer 2012 inspiration from Japanese warriors and integrates them with the accessories and silhouettes of motorcycle sports. Among the highlights of the “Misairu” collection is the “Missile Ring”, which is shaped like a motorbike’s tyres and helmet.
The jewellery pieces contain brave details and unique silver finishing that gives off a funky masculine touch. “We often get our inspirations from everyday surroundings and also from the lyrics of songs and movies. This collection was inspired by the Japanese masked rider character,” explain Pakorn Wongkittikraiwan and Lalita Saidaung. In terms of ideas and themes, Missile showcased the most interesting pieces in the Bangkoksmiths’ Spring/Summer 2012 collection.
To bring all four designers together, this year Bangkoksmiths introduced “The Mascot Collection”, a special collaboration with illustrator Teerawat “O” Tienkaprasit.
Teerawat assigned a distinctive animal character for each brand and reinterpreted it into a new logo. All four designers then took on the challenge of creating jewellery pieces inspired by the new logo.
Matina Amanita, represented by an owl, produced four trinket rings adorned with the creatures assigned to each brand, which can be worn as a single ring or as a composite of all four. Jogema, represented by an eagle, produced a graphical and 3D eagle statement ring in the brand’s crisp and clean silhouette style.
All four brands are now available exclusively at Bangkoksmiths, M Floor, Siam Paragon. Visit www.Bangkoksmiths.com.