‘Moto, meet ‘Moto
IN meteorology, colliding warm and cold fronts give rise to storm conditions, so it’s fitting that the jewelry collaboration between Mikimoto, the 114-year-old Japanese jewelry house, and Yohji Yamamoto, the avant-garde fashion designer, is called Stormy Weather.
The 29-piece collection makes its international debut Nov. 12 at the Beverly Hills Mikimoto boutique. But it was first unveiled during the Paris couture shows in July. Guests climbed three flights to the atelier, winding past a glass-and-iron elevator shaft roiling with smoke and blue lightning strikes.
For the first collection of the three-year partnership, Yamamoto created three themes: Moon, Drop and Le Cri (inspired by Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”). The results are undulating, metal and pearl pieces that are pleasingly spare and sculptural.
The raindrop-shaped pendants, earrings and necklaces in white gold and black lacquer reminiscent of Frank Gehry’s Tiffany collaboration and prove the perfect frames for the pearls’ natural curves. The Munch-inspired pieces are a bit too Goth grim for such high-end jewelry, looking like cross-sectioned shells or chambers of the heart. The detailed Moon series is the most ornate. One almost wishes the 28-day moon-phase necklace were a functional calendar: Its 28 gold disks present the moon cycles in graduated shades of pearl for $55,000 (one wishes it were affordable as well). There is also a sterling silver pendant on a silk cord for $1,100.
The collection will be available in all four of Mikimoto’s U.S. stores (Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, New York and Costa Mesa), as well as the Yohji Yamamoto store in New York.
