“I realised that there was hardly any contemporary pearl jewellery out there. It was all about the classic single-strand necklaces and small ear-studs, so it felt like an unexplored territory for me,” commented Greek designer Melanie Georgacopoulos, who established her eponymous brand in 2010 and is currently based in London.
“The more I worked with pearls, the more I realised how special they are, in the way they are made by a little animal at the bottom of the sea and when they are harvested they can readily be used without the need of any faceting or polishing like other gemstones,” said Georgacopoulos. While lustre and smoothness are among the most highly valued factors in determining the value of pearls, Georgacopoulos’s ambitious vision subverts this belief by destructively manipulating the gem that always symbolises elegance and purity.
With a solid foundation in silversmithing and training in sculpture, the designer expresses her aesthetics in form of sliced, drilled, faceted and caged pearls. When asked where her source of inspiration comes from, she said: “I wish I could say that my inspiration comes from specific places, but ideas literally come to me when I am most relaxed.” She sees her collections as individual chapters of the book of pearl jewellery – all chapters are interconnected while remaining distinct from one another.
To make her whimsical visions possible, fine pearls with nacre of a certain thickness are required. At the same time she needs to take into consideration the end customers who “want excellent products at the right price”. In some cases her ideas are just impossible to put forth due to technical or financial limitations and she must simplify or banish the original thoughts, which is tough as she is strongly attached to her designs. To her, this process of calculation and compromise is nevertheless “one of the many challenging and interesting aspects of jewellery making”.
In 2012, M/G Tasaki, an exclusive collection and collaboration between Georgacopoulos and Tasaki began when Tasaki spotted her work in Dover Street Market, London, and invited her to meet the brand’s design team in Japan. “It felt like such a compliment that a Japanese company with such a long history would be interested to work with me for pearl jewellery designs, which is culturally so important in Japan.” A second three-year contract was signed by both parties in 2015. Currently she works mainly with private clients while the Tasaki team takes care of the worldwide distribution of the M/G Tasaki line. Working typically with yellow/white gold, palladium and freshwater pearls, the designer said her collection are well-received worldwide especially in Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan where customers traditionally have a close relationship with pearls and favour interesting designs.
← Back