The New Wave of High Jewelry Is in China

According to the “China Unstoppable 2020 Luxury Market” report published by Bain & Company, China will be one of the largest luxury markets by 2025. A forecast that closely involves the jewelry sector, as stated in the report “The State of Fashion, Watches & Jewelry” published in June 2021 by The Business of Fashion in collaboration with McKinsey & Company: «The global jewelry market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, with Asia driving global growth. (...) The Chinese consumer will become more important for global brands.» While China will be the center of gravity of jewelry, at least in the near future, catalyzing international attention, the rapid growth of its economy has also had an impact on the creative imagination of the country's jewelers, who are now ambassadors of an experimental language that is, however, still linked to the rich, centuries-old cultural heritage of the East. Heirs to established designers such as Cindy Chao, Wallace Chan and Michelle Ong, who have enchanted the world with their poetic creations, full of artistic and naturalistic elements, Feng J, G Suen and Austy Lee are the representatives of a new wave that ventures into complex universes, overflowing with meaning, symbolism and progressive intuition. Feng J's visionary approach has already won over the collector elite. In December 2020, her Jardin de Giverny necklace sold at a Phillips auction for $2.6 million, soon after, the same auction house sold her Fountain of diamond ring for $1.7 million. Feng, at only 34 years old, became the youngest designer to achieve such a multi-million-dollar record. «I am a young female designer and the world is changing. Consumers want something very special, so I want to make high jewelry for the younger generation and my style of design and craftsmanship is driving me to do something totally different,» she said in an interview that very same year. She achieved this with the innovative Floating Set technique through which compositions can be created without metal structures so that the precious gems are free to emit all their light, giving the impression of floating in the air. Another distinctive element is the use of lacquer brushstrokes on precious metals, reflecting Feng's passion for contemporary art. She divides her time between her ateliers in Place Vendôme in Paris and Shanghai.

Studio G Suen, on the other hand, is based in London, where co-founders Gearry Suen and Jing Zhao are pursuing a type of hybrid research that breaks down the boundaries between digital and analogical, Eastern and Western culture, bringing together ancient Chinese artisan techniques, such as jade carving, with the latest technologies like virtual reality. An exercise clearly visible in the workmanship of the Ren earrings, created to enhance some of Chinese philosophy’s notions of humanity. Inspired by the Chinese characters “⼈人” and “⼊入”, which represent harmony between humanity and the universe, the earrings are in the shape of oxidized yellow and white gold branches and decorated with customcut, kite-shaped diamonds. Straddling the line between cyborg and poetry, the work reveals a chimerical vision very similar to that of Austy Lee, a Hong Kong-based designer who, after working 20 years in the industry, launched his first collection in April 2017 with the theme “When jewelry is psychedelic art.” Fascinated by the world's religions and different cultures, as well as graphics and fashion, Lee creates compositions with an elaborate architecture in which colors and rare precious gems seem to flow together despotically, creating a stunning visual impact. His avant-garde outlook is not without a strong national identity. Indeed, the designer has a great passion for jade, considered in China to be the most spiritual of gems, and aims to perpetuate its value in innovative heirlooms for future generations: the beginning of a new jade age promises to influence the future fortunes of high jewelry, extending its perspectives towards new and interesting syncretism.