It wasn’t even that long ago, that the Red Carpet was bedazzled with very traditional fine jewelry pieces. Glamorous? Yes. Pretty? Mostly! But modern, fashionable or even remotely original? Hardly! A few years ago, knuckle dusters suddenly appeared on the Red Carpet. As well as body chains and modern ear cuffs. The by now iconic ear cuffs by REPOSSI. All of a sudden, high end fine jewelry wasn’t reserved for old, rich ladies, it was becoming fashionable again for a younger generation.

Gaia Repossi has been one of the leading forces in the resurgence of fashionable and modern fine jewelry. For upping the cool-factor so to speak. As well as making exceptionally awesome ear cuffs, she is also a gutsy lady. A tomboy at heart and not really that interested in jewelry designing at first, she dropped out of her anthropology studies at Le Sorbonne, and at only 20 years old became the artistic director at Maison Repossi. Sure, she had some connections ;-) given the fact that the eponymous jewelry house has been in the family since 1925, but still, it takes guts to take on that much responsibilty at such a young age.

What surely strenghtened her resolve was that she probably knew she had an unique vision. She went with her gut instinct telling her she really could make a difference in terms of fine jewelry design. In 2011 she debuted her Berbere collection. Following her instinct paid of as it instantly became an iconic collection. Speaking about her jewelry she said it’s aimed at women like her who “didn’t like jewellery, either because they didn’t look smart with it, or because it was too ostentatious, or too bourgeois or just not modern enough for a conquering modern woman.”

By the way, I’m intend on writing a more in-depth piece on the resurgence of fashionable fine jewelry. But for now, you will have “to make do” (though I know ;-) )  with images of this gorgeous lookbook by Barneys. Now, there are lookbooks and then there are Lookbooks. Lookbooks that merely serve their purpose but are nothing special, and lookbooks that can truly measure up against some of the best editorials out there. This one, falls in the latter category!

REPOSSI jewelry is available at Barneys New York. Shop the lookbook here.

Credit all images: Barneys.