LONDON — The Pavilion of Art and Design, otherwise known as PAD, in London’s affluent Mayfair feels like a homecoming for the Brazilian-born jeweler Fernando Jorge.
He showed at the fair dedicated to 20th century and contemporary design 11 years ago as part of a collective.
At this year’s PAD London — running from Tuesday through to Sunday — he’s coming in with his own booth spotlighting his jewelry that takes its cues from his Brazilian heritage and love for sculptural architecture and the natural world with the use of precious diamonds, stones and wood.
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Jorge’s PAD booth takes a moody turn with a moss green floor-to-ceiling fabrication that he worked on with Brazilian architect and interior designer Juliana Lima Vasconcellos.
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He will have his fine jewelry collection, Vertex, on display alongside Deep Vertex, his take on high jewelry and a further exploration of the Vertex universe, which was inspired by Art Deco design with its geometric shapes.
Deep Vertex will introduce wood, mother-of-pearl and minerals such as onyx and carnelian. Jorge sources a majority of his materials from Brazil.
His other collections, Stream and Deep Stream, will also be on show. The collections are based on the fluidity of the Amazon’s rivers.
“Everything comes through the lens of Brazil, which has been fluid and organic for many years, but my work is refined in London and now I understand the tension between nature as inspiration and the city as the place where the jewelry lives. For me, Brazil is my home and London is my second home,” Jorge said in an interview from his Mayfair studio and showroom.
“I want to create this duality in the PAD display, where there’s Stream and Deep Stream, as well as Vertex and Deep Vertex,” he added.
The Vertex collection starts at 9,000 pounds for an 18-karat yellow gold band set with 0.67 carats of baguette-cut diamonds and can go up to 42,000 pounds for an 18-karat yellow bracelet set with 4.22 carats of baguette-cut diamonds before entering price on application territory for more delicate pieces with more diamonds.
The Deep Vertex collection at PAD London will range from 7,900 pounds to 200,000 pounds.
Jorge’s jewelry has movement — they snake around the body like a reptile and sometimes they softly curve or bend as if they’re imitating the architecture of the late Iraqi and British architect Zaha Hadid.
Showing his designs in his own booth at PAD London has always been an aspiration on the designer’s checklist that he’s finally completing. When he was invited to the fair in 2014, he showed his Stream collection and when he was invited again last year, he produced the Deep Stream collection.
The PAD London clientele is a serious one with deep pockets. The designer’s pieces flew off the shelf instantly last year before he even got a chance to photograph some of the designs.
Last year’s PAD London recorded robust numbers of visitors and sales figures with a turnout of 29,200 visitors with 62 international exhibitors, including 12 newcomers.
The four biggest purchases totaled 147,000 pounds at the fair, starting with 10,000 pounds for a Gasan Lee Yongsoon moon jar to 85,000 pounds for a Junko Mori chandelier sold by Adrian Sassoon.
Jorge’s building blocks are coming together. He’s been meditating on his designs in the past few years and decided to take a philosophical approach.
The common gold or platinum thread running through his designs traces back to Brazil.
He grew up in Campinas, a city in the Brazilian state of São Paulo that’s suburban and middle class.
Jorge tried his hand at food engineering first before dropping out and moving to the city of São Paulo to do a course in technical logistics that his sister was taking.
He found that his heart was not in logistics either, but found jewelry to be a calling.
“My grandmother was very artistic and wore jewelry. My other grandmother was Lebanese and also wore jewelry, but a career in jewelry never occurred to me,” Jorge said, adding that he was hesitant about entering jewelry through education after losing out some years to working.
He found an internship with a Brazilian jewelry manufacturer doing technical drawings of the pieces that the designer had created.
Jorge found a natural buzz from designing objects that came to life in weeks. He applied for the design masters at Central Saint Martins that was disciplined in jewelry, ceramics and furniture.
His classmates were from all walks of life and all of them drew inspiration from their respective heritage. “The French student with a deep knowledge of French jewelry was building on that, an African student from Sudan was looking at applying traditional crafts from Sudan into contemporary jewelry. It was important for me to be more Brazilian with my designs and only moving to London made me feel that way,” he said.
“I had this frustration about jewelry not having a very good Brazilian representation and people in Brazil were always looking to French and Italian jewelry houses and trying to create copies or derivatives,” he added.
Jorge’s efforts have paid off in putting Brazilian jewelry on the map on an international scale.
His brand has showrooms in New York’s Chelsea and in São Paulo, while his designs have been worn by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna, Adele and Fernanda Torres, the Brazilian actress who picked up the award for Best Actress in a motion picture drama at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards for the film “I’m Still Here” in a pair of medium loop earrings, a galaxy ring and an open ring from Jorge’s High Stream collection.
Another star who has been recently photographed in Jorge’s pieces is Meryl Streep in her role as Miranda Priestly for “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
A big part of the business derives from the U.S. and the Middle East. He works with 30 retailers including Bergdorf Goodman, Net-a-porter and Moda Operandi. He also works with local boutiques in Aspen, Boston, Paris and Beirut.
Jorge has an eclectic clientele that’s cross generational, but his core clientele are women in their early 40s who happen to be artists, gallerists or interior designers.
His plans for the future are to hone what he has.
“I feel like I’ve expanded into so many important elements recently and now I need to grow within them. I want to better the showroom experience and to better myself at PAD over the coming years,” Jorge said.