Signity's 'Hommages' Aims to Stimulate Young Talent

By Carrie Soucy, Senior Editor -- JCK Online, 9/1/2003 2:00:00 AM

Swarovski's Signity brand this year launched a new initiative, Hommages, to challenge and inspire young jewelry design talent.

For Hommages, Signity worked with Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School in Florence, Italy, where students from around the world were invited to design "Hollywood-glamorous" jewels for a male or female celebrity—past or present. The students were free to choose from a wide selection of Signity gemstones, though the focus was on this year's fashionable gem of choice—garnets in myriad hues.

Sixty students participated in the project, and 16 pieces were selected to be fabricated through the sponsorship of Italian jewelry manufacturers.

"We are confident that this project will begin to open up the limitless possibilities for using small stones in entirely new ways, in exciting jewelry designs that are wearable, fashionable, and very much of the moment," Swarovski chairman and CEO Helmut Swarovski said in a statement.

The project was celebrated during the VicenzaOro2 fair, where six student designers were awarded cash prizes. The finished pieces will be auctioned for charity later this year. The auction will benefit SOS-Kinderdorf International, a network of 100 associations that seek to provide parentless children with permanent homes and stable environments.

The manufacturers who sponsored the event and fabricated the final pieces were Bibigi, Bruni Gossio, Lalla & Rossana Gioielli, Ferrante Gioielliere, Staurino Fratelli, Faselli Franco, Milano Riero, Porta Raselli, Ponte Vecchio, and D. Swarovski.