A Studio Visit With Bande Des Quatres

5.29.2013

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God, I love the internet, because after an intro via Instagram, I was able to meet Erin Wahed, the endlessly inspiring mind behind Bande Des Quatres.

I found myself in Erin's wonderfully colorful East Village apartment earlier this week to discuss her design process and get to know how Bande Des Quatres gets its signature look of fine art studio-meets-contemporary fashion jewelry. Erin wears mostly black and white, preferring to wear her amazing, streamlined peroxide blonde hair combed back. She explained that while she enjoys wearing mostly netural colors and graphic lines, she also prefers to surround herself with beatiful colors and textures, a preference that stems out of her roots in the visual realm of photography.

While romping through the velvet boxes containging Erin's entire collections of rings, bracelets and earrings inspired by artists and designers that get her goat, Erin gave me the scoop as to why she's been very selective in how she presents the brand and keeps it from getting too far from its studio roots- a preference that doesn't stray too far from home (A Montreal native, Erin's mom  is none other than renowned jewelry designer Janis Kerman, who has exhibited her works as both jewelry and fine art since the 70's). Working with beautiful precious metals and stones (like tiny rough-cut black diamonds set into gold and silver), Erin has based her nearly surreal and illusionary designs off of artists and designers she loves, like architect Van der Rohe or the students of the Bauhaus like Kandinsky or Paul Klee. Her rings appear to "float" or move through someone's stream of fingers, while her double-backed earrings peek through hair and play off the joys of asymmetry. Erin's work captivates because it ignites an onlooker's sense of curiosity with beautiful simplicity and just the right amount of technical proficiency and craftsmanship.

I could've looked through those boxes foreveverever, and it totally would've been possible for the sheer fact that every piece works beautifully together in layers. Erin says her next collection is going to cover necklaces, but she's still tinkering with her inspirational concepts. It was then, as she listed her possible ideas for what's next that I realized, donned in the BDQ pieces I had been playing with, that I would not mind being covered head-to-toe in anything that came out of Erin's head.

Find BDQ online or at Oak 

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5 comments:

  1. Ooooooooooooooooo the first squared ring is AMAZING! (Giudy)
    www.blogandthecities.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful jewellery! I wouldn't mind owning several of the statement rings.

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  3. So many great pieces!

    xo Jennifer

    http://seekingstyleblog.wordpress.com

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  4. Super chic and contemporary. Thanks for the introduction!

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