Opulent Indulgence

Photostory credits : Concept and Styling by The Space At 9/2

Photography by : Rema Chaudhary

Imagine experiencing finely crafted jewellery by immersing yourself into a journey–where each piece of creation has its own narrative and you are able to witness an amalgamation of precious wearable forms, art, space, thought and design. It is this experience of immersion that diamantaire Rahul Jhaveri, Founder - Studio Renn, attempts to achieve through his love for art and fine jewellery.

As a third generation diamantaire Rahul has always been creatively inclined and jewellery was the natural medium of choice for his creative expression. Being extensively process oriented, where the process supersedes the work itself; he believes the work is just a physical manifestation of moment in time in his study.

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Inspiration

For him the preliminary conceptualisation happens not keeping jewellery in mind in the first place. " We meditate on a thought and ideate through sketches, paper models, architectural images, conversations, words, phrases. We simply use jewellery as a medium to express those explorations. We try to abstract the world around us by stripping away whatever is not required. Ooze, glow, nothingness, shadows, airgaps – those intangible elements are at the heart of our work. It is not the tangible elements which we assign value to. Our approach is also very experimental, and we learn a lot more from our failure than we do from our success. So the most personal works are the works which have fallen by the wayside – lost dreams which will manifest themselves in another way," says Rahul.

Philosophy

Rahul is not looking at making jewellery, for him its merely a medium used to express his creativity. Rather he focusses on encouraging people to slow down – look – listen – feel. Being material agnostic and for him the design and the creative process is more important than the physical aspects of the work. He shares that it is the intangible elements such as reflections, airgaps, volume – the nothingness – that makes the work what it is. That is what we he constantly focusses upon too.

Rahul constantly challenges his skills intellectually and technically. All his designs are editioned pieces – not to make them exclusive but so that he is pushed to perpetually innovate and evolve.

"We simply stay true to our vision and what comes out is what it is. We do not try to adhere to any trends or shifts. Our approach to design is our signature – not the designs themselves. And what we have to offer is something real and meaningful," says Rahul.

He further goes on to say, "There is a growing need for original, thoughtful and personal work. It’s work that is true to itself and more and more people have become sensitive to pick up on that. And these works cannot and should not be defined or categorized because it creates a constraint on how people can view, interpret and wear them".

Making a difference

Rahul is focusing on making a change rather he believes that there is a huge drive to change two things, specifically true to the Indian jewelry market. One being the industry that has commoditised jewellery – breaking it down to simply a sum of its parts. He is trying to change this conversation, bringing the design into the focus, along with the intangible elements of the piece into the discussion – making people realise that things are greater than the sum of its parts.

The other aspect that is very important to him is to engage in a dialogue with people of the industry itself. Jewellers often view each other as competition, but Rahul prefer to think of them as peers. There is a need for a dialogue between jewellery houses and designers – encouraging a confluence of ideas, exchange of thoughts and approaches by bonding over shared experiences.

Contemporary traditions

For a brand like Studio Renn that values design and craft, it was initially difficult to find the right partners to make it scalable whilst preserving quality, but when they did – it’s even rarer to see the same level of uncompromising passion. Rahul has been fortunate enough to find the right people. More often than not, the right people have found him, as he puts it - "our paths just converged serendipitously".

"There is a growing need for original, thoughtful and personal work. It’s work that is true to itself and more and more people have become sensitive to pick up on that. They are going back to how things used to be. Things that are authentic, meaningful, purposeful and resonates with themselves – that’s what they are drawn towards. People are not buying anymore. They are looking forward to collect exorbitant pieces. Keeping that in mind – it does not matter how we seem to categorise jewellery anymore, be it – traditional, contemporary, opulent, minimal. As long as it is true to itself – it will be able to stand on its own," concludes Rahul.