The Nuts and Bolts of Fashion: Jewellery Designer Yaniv Baranes

Yaniv Baranes new collection of jewellery creates a connection between the industrial and the feminine. 

Fashion correspondent Limor Helfgott interviews designer Yaniv Baranes at his Tel Aviv studio and discovers that hardware and fashion definitely go together. As a young boy, the Israeli grew up surrounded by the nuts, bolts and springs of his father's factory. He never imagined he would one day be making jewellery from them. Special editorial photography for Design & Art Magazine by Sherban Lupu with model Nela Samokovlija

YANIV Baranes was always an artistic child and at his father's factory he was given full rein to explore the interesting materials. But the designer went on to study economics, planning to work in the business sector of the family firm. After graduating, he yearned for a more creative career and decided to study interior design and began designing interiors with a strong industrial aesthetic.

The idea of creating jewellery and fashion accessories began when he was producing an exhibition for one of his university professors. “I was fascinated by the materials I was using which were foreign to me as an interior designer,'' Baranes says. "I was drawn by the gentleness of using textiles instead of the wood and concrete I worked with as an interior designer.”

When Baranes was designing his own apartment he created a net curtain made from different types of springs from his father's factory with the idea of designing a large abstract lamp. “I brought the net home and my sister caught a glimpse of it and immediately wrapped it around her hand. She asked if I could make a bracelet for her. 

“I learnt from making that first bracelet how much pleasure I had creating jewellery for women from industrial pieces which have no connection to fashion and femininity until they are linked together to create something entirely different," says Baranes.  

Baranes new collection of jewellery called Springs Project is made entirely from springs, locks, washers and bolts. The range has been a great success but the designer says he still has a lot to learn in the fashion and accessories world and is starting a masters degree in Fashion and Textile Design: “I am always looking for new ideas and one of my goals when I am studying is to come up with other new projects in the fashion field.”

Fashion styling: Limor Helfgott. Make-up: Yael Madmon. Model: Nela Samokovlija. 

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow

Yaniv Baranes designing his jewellery collection at his studio in Tel Aviv. Always an artistic child, at his father's factory he was given full rein to explore the interesting materials.

Baranes new collection of jewellery called Springs Project is made entirely from springs, locks, washers and bolts.

The idea of designing jewellery and fashion accessories began when he was producing an exhibition for one of his university professors. “I was fascinated by the materials I was using which were foreign to me as an interior designer.''  

When Baranes was designing his own apartment he created a net curtain for a lighting piece made from different types of springs from his father's factory. “I brought home the net home and my sister caught a glimpse of it and immediately wrapped it around her hand. She asked if I could make a bracelet for her.”  

“I learnt from making that first bracelet how much pleasure I had creating jewelry for women from industrial pieces which have no connection to fashion and femininity until they are linked together to create something entirely different," says Baranes.  

The Springs Project has been a great success but the designer says he still has a lot to learn about the fashion and accessories world and is starting a masters degree in Fashion and Textile Design.

Designer Marcel Wanders: New Works at Milan Design Week

Marcel Wanders is one of the most creative and prolific designers working today, creating new furniture, products and architectural designs for clients around the world. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

Among the world’s top designers who gathered at this year’s Milan Design Week, Dutch superstar Marcel Wanders’ work was the most ubiquitous with new pieces at Moooi, Baccarat, Magis, Barovier&Toso and Very Wood, Jeanne-Marie Cilento writes. Additional reporting by Antonio Visconti

RISING resplendent in a black suit above a small Italian Vespa, Marcel Wanders tall frame could be seen zipping from one event to another during the Salone del Mobile. Wanders needed a quick and easy way to get around town as he had so many shows across the city.

The designer’s signature black and white look was completed by his chunky necklace and new lime-green and orange suede Nike runners. The designer’s work has a unique aesthetic that is full of fantasy and poetry and runs counter to the prevalence of industrial minimalism. It has been a busy 12 months for the Amsterdam-based Wanders. Apart from new designs for a range of companies worldwide, his work is currently being celebrated at a big retrospective at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Wanders designs are also held in collections at MoMA in New York, and London’s V&A Museum.

The designer spoke to DAM in the chiaroscuro light of the enormous Moooi Unexpected Welcome show held in a cavernous space in Milan’s Zona Tortona design district. The vast exhibition was dominated by colossal architectural images by Italian photographer Massimo Listri. The new works for Moooi ~  (mooi meaning beautiful in Dutch) ~ were presented in open rooms under the giant images of Italian Baroque interiors.

As art director and co-founder of Moooi, Wanders’ wants the company’s designs to be treasured and to last: future antiques not disposable pieces that are made to be discarded. “In a world which is dominated by the new, we like to see our works in the context of eternity. Massimo Listri is like an ambassador of this eternal heritage,” explains Wanders.

Listri’s extraordinarily rich and still interior images create dramatic backdrops for Moooi’s new designs. The photographer is passionate about atmosphere and perspective and is inspired by painters such as Piero della Francesca and Vermeer. “My photography is an expression of tranquillity in a chaotic world, bringing perspective and equilibrium to the viewer’s soul,” says Listri.

Marcel Wanders most atmospheric installation during Milan Design Week was the Delft Blue Tattooed Hands for the UNTOLD exhibition curated by Rosanna Orlandi and commissioned by the fashion house Vionnet at the historic Bagatti Valsechi Museum. Created from fine ceramic, the elegant white and blue hands were hauntingly accompanied by Wanders’ film Fragile Fingers on a Grand Piano played by renowned Dutch pianist Iris Hond.  

Another evocative show created by Wanders was for the Venetian glass design house Barovier & Toso from Murano. The exhibition was located at Fuorisalone in the Brera, held in the spectacular courtyard of the San Sempliciano cathedral. Called Light E-Motion, the artistic installation by Wanders aimed to surprise the viewer and challenge the laws of physics through the movement of glass chandeliers reconfigured to have a human aspect.

Again working in the field of glass, Wanders created ninety-nine limited edition vases for the New Antique Collection for famous French house Baccarat. The two new designs revisit the celebrated Médici vase, combining a rather sumptuous classical form but with a contemporary, geometric look in clear or dark crystal.

Wanders also designed a cartoony, Pop Art piece for Gufram, an Italian furniture design house in Piedmont known for creating sculptural and conceptual art pieces. Called Hortensia, the bright-blue flowered island seat is surreal and designed as a “soft sculpture” in polyurethane foam with a gooey, shiny finish. Gufram describes the piece not as a seat but as a “territory of relaxation for one or more people”.

Marcel Wanders designed three new chairs for Italian design company Magis, including two new versions of Cyborg, the masculine sci-fi Lord Cyborg with a high back the so-called Lady Cyborg which is designed to be lighter and more elegant. The Troy chair is also represented covered in a new range of textiles, metal, leather and wood.

The designer also began a new collaboration with the Very Wood company, creating two new chairs. The linear Century Chair with subtle historical touches and a new innovation where you can change the back of the chair using different material in wood, ceramic or bronze. The other Loop Chair is more dynamic and resembles arches drawn through the air.

New pieces from Moooi’s collection launched this year in Milan include many designs by Wanders plus pieces by Studio Job who have offices in Antwerp and Amsterdam, Hong Kong-based Danny Fang, Swiss studio ZMIK, Indonesian designer Alvin Tjitrowirjo based in Jakarta along with Dutch designers Bertjan Pot, Joost van Bleiswijk & Kiki van Eijk and Scholten & Baijings.

Wanders’ designs include the new Love collection with oversized chairs that are round, soft and embracing ~ and big enough for two people to curl up in together. Covered in a Wanders-designed white, fluffy textile, the large-scale chairs and sofas look very tempting places to sink into. The Nest chair is also plump and inviting with big, colourful cushions that spill over a streamlined, steel frame. The brilliantly-coloured fabrics for the overscale cushions were designed by Wanders to look like a soaring blue sky.

Highlights from other designers for Moooi include the ingenious Prop Light by Bertjan Pot plus the suspended Colour Globe lamps by Scholten & Baijings in their first collaboration with the company. Studio Job created a new printed carpet called L’Afrique full of brilliant colour and cartoon-like figures of jungle and tribal masks. The studio also designed the new Paper Desk made as a solid piece of furniture from layers of white sheets of paper.

The quirky furniture range by Joost van Bleiswijk and Kiki van Eijk is a series of cupboards in solid ash and woven textiles that were inspired by the construction of Tudor houses. Indonesian designer Alvin Tjitrowirjo’s relaxed Taffeta sofa and chair in rattan evoke tropical weather and large verandas

Wanders says he wants Moooi’s range of lighting, furniture and accessories to create inspiring interiors not banal spaces, designs that are full of new ideas that brighten daily life with a touch of magic. “Our interiors are places where visions converge and where everyone can stop and feel comfortable within an eclectic mix of culture and experiences that makes the home more beautiful and unique,’’ he says.

Click on photographs for full-screen slide-show

Marcel Wanders atmospheric Fragile Fingers on a Grand Piano, 2012.  The installation was on show at the UNTOLD exhibition curated by Rosanna Orlandi at Milan's historic Bagatti Valsechi Museum during Milan Design Week. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

Another evocative show created by Wanders was for Venetian glass design house Barovier & Toso held in the spectacular courtyard of the San Sempliciano cathedral. Called Light E-Motion, the artistic installation by Wanders aimed to surprise the viewer and challenge the laws of physics. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

Add Called Light E-Motion, the artistic installation by Wanders aimed to surprise the viewer and challenge the laws of physics through the movement of glass chandeliers reconfigured to have a human aspect. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

Wanders designed this cartoony, Pop Art piece for Gufram. Called Hortensia, the bright-blue flowered island seat is surreal and designed as a “soft sculpture” in polyurethane foam with a gooey, shiny finish. Gufram describes the piece not as a seat but as a “territory of relaxation for one or more people”. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

Love Chair designed by Marcel Wanders to be big enough for two people to cuddle up on. It is covered in Wanders' white, fluffy "Plush" textile. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

 Designed by Marcel Wanders, the Nest Chair has a sleek galvanised steel frame and big, plump cushions. Wanders also designed the fabric called "One Minute" with swathes of blue sky. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

The hanging lamps are designed Scholten & Baijings and called Colour Globes. They are created with two layers of hand-blown glass encasing an opalescent LED light. Below are the Cocktail Chairs designed by Marcel Wanders with a specially-designed textile covered in historic Dutch motifs. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

New chair and footstool that are part of Marcel Wanders'  Zio collection made from solid oak with a natural, light-stained finish. Photograph by Nicole Marnati

The new Salago lamps are made of paper mache and designed by Danny Fang. They are suspended above theL'Afrique round rug designed by Studio Job with a jungle motif and tribal masks. The chairs are part of the Nut collection in oak designed by Marcel Wanders. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

The Cloud sofa and footstool with round, fluid shapes designed by Marcel Wanders. Photograph by Nicole Marnati

The new Taffeta rattan chair and cushions were designed by Alvin Tjitrowirjo and inspired by traditional Indonesian materials and fruit and flower motifs. Above are the new Salago lamps made of paper mache and designed by Danny Fang. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

The Tudor cupboard by Joost van Bleiswijk & Kiki van Eijk is inspired by the construction of tudor houses and is made of an ash frame and woven textiles of foliage. Photograph by Nicole Marnati

The Kroon lamp by ZMIK ~ Matthias Mohr & Rolf Indermühle ~ with a new light in champagne that diffuses a golden glow. The Tapered tables below are by Moooi in solid oak or birch. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

 Massimo Listri's enormous photographs of interiors behind a dramatic mise-en-scene for Moooi's collection of furniture. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

Tudor buffet designed byKiki van Eijk & Joost van Bleiswijk and made from solid ash with woven textile depiciting autumnal foliage motif. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

At the left of the picture are the new collection of Prop lights by Bertjan Pot. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

The scenic backdrops for the new Moooi collection presented in Milan are all by Italian photographer Massimo Listri. Photograph by Ambrogio De Lauro

Zio dining table and chairs designed by Marcel Wanders to be the centre piece and heart of the house around which families gather, entertain and relax. Photograph by Nicole Marnati

The quirky, padded Love chair designed by Marcel Wanders for Moooi with the Colour Globe lamps above. Photograph by Nicole Marnati

Add The high-back Love chair and sofa designed by Marcel Wanders at the entrance to the 1,700 square metre exhibition space for Moooi's show Via Savona 56 in Milan. Photograph by Nicole Marnati

Barovier & Toso's Murano glass chandeliers exhibited in Milan at the San Sempliciano courtyard. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

The exhibition created by Wanders for the Venetian glass design house Barovier & Toso from Murano. The exhibition was located at Fuorisalone in the Brera. Wanders aimed to surprise the viewer and challenge the laws of physics through the movement of glass chandeliers reconfigured to have a human aspect. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

Another scene from the exhibition curated by Marcel Wanders for Barovier & Toso during Milan Design Week. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

Marcel Wanders "humanised" Murano glass chandeliers for the Barovier & Toso Lights E-Motion show. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

Wanders began a new collaboration with the Very Wood company, creating two new chairs including the linear Century Chair shown above. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

Marcel Wanders designed three new chairs for Italian design company Magis, including two new versions of Cyborg, Lord and Lady Cyborg. Picture courtesy of Marcel Wanders

Secret Rome: Atmospheric Quartiere Coppedè

Photojournalist Christian Evren Gimotea Lozañes captures the looming Gothic apparition of the Quartiere Coppedè. Jeanne-Marie Cilento reports from Rome

EVEN on a sunny day with the Eternal City’s sapphire blue skies gleaming above, the quarter’s darker and more obscure corners have an ominous air. Dripping with stony ornament, towered buildings flank a long, low archway lit by an enormous wrought-iron chandelier that leads to the main square, Piazza Mincio. 

The extraordinary mix of Art Nouveau, Ancient Roman, Egyptian, Medieval and Renaissance motifs is the product of one prolific mind, the Florentine architect Gino Coppedè. In 1916, he was given an architect’s ideal project ~ the opportunity to design an entirely new residential quarter of Rome in Parioli. Given creative carte blanche by the clients, the architect allowed his imagination to run amok and designed an enclave more baroque in sensibility than even Bernini could dream up for 16th Century Rome.

Gino Coppedè was born in Florence in 1866 and began his career as a boy sculpting decorative pieces for furniture. Later he attended the Professional School of Industrial and Decorative Arts, graduating when he was twenty-four and becoming a member of the city's Academy of Fine Arts. The architect continued to work in Rome creating extraordinary buildings in the Quartiere Coppedè until 1927.

The original designs were not created for an eccentric millionaire but for a Ligurian building association to house the city’s growing professional class and civil servants. The stone carved winged serpents, monolithic eastern heads and putti that decorate the buildings all come from Gino Coppedè's youth when he worked in the wood carving studio of his father. 

Walking around the Quartiere Coppedè feels like being in a bizarre fairytale with it’s combination of Florentine towers and Venetian palaces decorated with mosaics and frescoes, Baroque Roman palazzi with real and imitation papal stemmata, sundials and even a building with ironwork and carvings in the form of musical notation. 

Today, forty-five different buildings from three to six stories high make up the Quartiere Coppedè. The mosaic-tiled archways, intricate brickwork, turrets, towers and loggias all create a unique architectural borgo amid one of Rome's most sober and wealthy residential suburbs. 

The Quartiere Coppede's central Piazza Mincio with it's massive Art Nouveau  fountain.

Completed in 1924, the Fontana delle Rane's dynamic figures and water creatures dominate Piazza Mincio. 

Full of movement and fantasy, the fountain's sculptures depict giant shells and water nymphs. 

Spouting head of the Fontana della Rane at the heart of the Coppede Quarter in Parioli

Facade showing architect Gino Coppede's extraordinary mix of architectural and historical motifs from the Roman Corinthian columns and Renaissance loggia to the Art Nouveau curling cast iron balcony and tiles.

Detail of the building's entrance with it's graphic black and yellow tiles, iron and glass lamp and panelled wooden doors.

The fantastical Villino delle Fate with it's mix of terracotta, cast iron and mosaic-tiled decoration. 

Detail of the facade of the Villino delle Fate designed by Florentine architect Gino Coppede and depicting Renaissance Florence including Brunelleschi's Duomo and the Palazzo delle Signoria.

The apartment buildings are decorated with Romanesque loggias, Liberty style ceramic tiles and Roman lion's heads and classical heads.

Looking up to the facade of the entrance building flanking the archway, it is covered in a riot of High Mannerist classical figures and heads carved in Travertine marble.

The street leading into the enclave of the Quartiere Coppede.

The enormous wrought-iron chandelier hanging below the archway at the entrance to the Quartiere Coppede.

Palazzo del Ragno built from Travertine marble, Roman bricks and wood and showing Coppede's combination of historical influences.

Garden terraces and apartments form part of the quarter's entrance archway and look out across Piazza Mincio

Palazzo Del Ragno designed and built between 1916-1924 and showing architect Gino Coppede's capacity to combine different materials such as brick, marble, stone and wood and historical motifs.

The great Travertine marble head above the doors leading into the Palazzo del Ragno

Travertine marble decorations carved to represent a winged griffin and stylised lion's head.

Detail of an elaborate corner balcony, the Grotesques carved in Travertine marble.