The rise of neo-punk jewelry

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Golden Cascade Mask by Kavya Potluri Summary In a country that loves traditional jewelry, Indie designers are designing statement pieces such as Nail Talons and Teeth Grillz Hyderabad-based jewelry designer Kavya Potluri, 31, remembers a childhood who goes to buy her mother while going to buy jewels. “She was a passionate jewelry collector and regularly picked up these beautiful pieces. Even as a child, I mostly remember to myself that ‘the piece is good, but it could have been better’. ” Potluri, an alumni from Raffles Design Institute, Singapore, and the Gemological Institute of America, started her eponymous label in November 2020. The setup from the beginning, she says, was to make jewelry away without complying with trends or traditional templates. “I kept an open mind about what I wanted to do, but I developed. My thinking process is that I don’t want to create, based on what society expects of me. Instead, it is when I am free of expectations that I have the most fun,” says Potluri. Also read: Indians worship gold, unlike anywhere else, says the CEO of Bvlgari that reflects free -range attitude in Potluri’s excessive pieces made by melting silver, copper and copper. Whether it is her complicated detailed chapters, FileGreed Nail Talons, overcacks or whimsical sunglasses, Potluri’s designs have mercy on magazines, music videos and fashion shows; Her head and hairball ornaments and hand harmles were part of the Miss Universe India 2023 participant Divita Rai’s national costume. She is also searched by brides who are looking for jewelry. “I have NRI brides that make zoom calls to discuss what they want,” says Potluri, whose creations range from £ 3,280 for rings to £ 4-5 lakh for custom wedding jewelry. In a time when everyone carries more or less composite appearance through social media algorithms, independent jewelry designers seem to be taking the lead in creating pieces that are maximalist and individualistic. In a country that is traditionally conservative in its jewelry preferences, they are making a visual identity that spells out neo-punk with a touch of Indian greatness. Their prevailing motto: stand out instead of interfering. If Potluri is about creating fat repetition of traditional jewelry, Shrrikesh Choksi, 30, in Mumbai is about adjusting traditional jewelry techniques to decorate-to roast it. Choksi’s label, Frostbite Lab, which he started in July 2024, is India’s first and currently the only maker of Teeth Grillz. Grillz is simply described as ‘jewelry for the teeth’, and is removable dental caps made mainly of silver, gold or platinum. Based on customer preference, the metal caps can also be decorated with diamonds, precious stones or other stylish motifs. Ask him who inspired him to start a label focused on an almost non-existent jewelery category in the country, and he says, ‘It’s a little embarrassing and my friends still laugh at me, but it all started because I had a vivid dream where I (American rapper) saw a $ ap rocky wearing teeth grillz. ” Look at the full Beeld Grillz by Frostbite Lab as the only custom Grillz manufacturer in the country, it gives Choksi unlimited freedom to be as creative as possible while making these accessories. “Every tooth is different and is like a cloth that offers you endless design possibilities. Some people want stone setup on the grillz, some want enamel in colors, and then there are some who want laser gear,” says Charoxi, who asks for £ 4,500 for its designs. As labels led mainly through 30-sumethings, the jewelry collections emit an aura reminiscent of the punk fashion era of the 1970s. A movement whose origin is largely attributed to people such as the music group Sex Pistols and the late -fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, Punk mode, and his expanse, punk jewelry, gave the youth of the time the license to face social norms. The distinctive DIY aesthetic and motifs such as razor, skulls and nails were fat, non-conformist. Over the years, the rebellious aesthetics of punk may have developed from one of the breeding to rushing high fashion, but which remains consistent is the attitude to experiment, bend rules and be singular. Material experiments The DIY aesthetics are sharply expressed in the collections of the brand no to Mé. The label’s jewelry was founded in 2020 by Smruti Mathisekaran in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. Or as Mathisekaran (35) describes it, “fat, geometric and modular”. While creating unconventional jewelry from the beginning was her vision, the brand’s DIY lounge was the result of a logical thinking. No to Mé was stuffed and “I had very little money when I worked on my first collection,” she says. ‘This is when I learned that you need a minimum order quantity (MOQ) to approach a seller to get a design. Also, the solder of the parts tends to be expensive. I decided to become modular and create jewelry from a nuts and bolt system that is easy to mount and set apart, ‘says Mathisekaran, who works with a three-Four members’ Barebones team. These design thinking is visible in the collection, a bar, a circle, a detour, where the carrier can create a hair accessory with a DIY set containing a 24-carat gold plate bar, two medium-sized buttons and a leather strap. As an outlier brand, the first years were difficult. “When I did my first pop-up, there were people who wondered if it was stationery,” she recalls. But by pop-ups and their Instagram page, the label makes a dive. Another jewelry brand that is just as experimental is Econock in Delhi. With sustainability as their core philosophy, the brand that began to make bags out of discarded leather has now expanded to jewelry. Their current collections, Solstice and Crafted Gaia, are made of leather and metal and contain a variety of pieces such as overcowns, earrings, necklaces and corsets. “Our aesthetic is ‘global warming ready’,” says Gouri Rawat, co-founder of the brand. “The whole brand is on the basis of Upcycling, so everything you see on our website is of waste material.” As an accessory designer who worked with jewelry brands in the US and India, Rawat says they wanted to create something that was “rooted in tradition and hand action and yet spoke a high fashion language”. Econock’s jewelry is made to order and is between £ 2,000-7,000. In addition to being lifted, a common thread connecting these designers is that they use the show with the hand of a small team. “Ideally, I would prefer to focus on the design, but at the moment I handle the business aspect of work and social media as well,” says Potluri, who has ten artisans for her. The conversation finally amounts to the most basic question: Is the Indian client experimental enough to spend his or her earnings on their creations? “Everyone is exposed to different trends around the world. Young people are especially more knowledgeable than before and are therefore more open -minded to try new things,” says Choksi. Take a look at the full image a no to Mé design. There is a quiet revolution that takes place, Aeem T. Siddiqui (37), a luxury communications specialist from Delhi. Siddiqui, a dedicated supporter of Savage X Fenty by Rihanna and Oldouse, says: “People experiment with industrial forms, raw metal textures and confidence concept pieces. It becomes less about shock value and more about personal expression. India’s jewelry scene is slowly developing and it is exciting to look at.” Also read: In a ‘meantakari’ museum in Jaipur, all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #Features Mint Specials