Saskia Diez
Muenchen, Germany

Saskia Diez – "My jewelry is there to embellish" For a long time, we associated jewelry design first and foremost with one thing, complex handcrafted items made of precious materials. It was the visual expression of luxury that was important. For some years now a few young designers who deliberately oppose this view of jewelry and create formally reduced designs which incorporate influences from fashion, art and design have been attracting attention. The Munich-based designer Saskia Diez has made a decisive contribution to this trend in jewelry design. Shortly after completing a classic apprenticeship as a goldsmith she got the feeling that for her the traditional world of jewelry was just too restrictive. She studied industrial design and worked at various design studios, including for Rosenthal and Konstantin Grcic, before her path led her back to jewelry design, more by coincidence than anything else. An industrial design perspective is clearly recognizable in her designs. They captivate us with their clarity and intelligent simplicity, play with cultural and formal references, combine the traditional and the modern and refer to the zeitgeist, without being trendy. They make reference to familiar things, reprogram them and deliberately question the principles according to which individual items of jewelry are made: Does a ring, in itself, have to be solid and closed? Can a clasp also be decorative? Despite her serious, reflective approach, Saskia Diez's designs are never lacking in poetry.

Saskia Diez finds inspiration for her designs in very different things, such as a fleeting glance that lingers somewhere, a person whose movements and gestures are captivating, the shape and material of items of clothing or the specific mood of a movie, sometimes even errors, minor inconsistencies – all these inspire ideas in her. Spurred on by observations and associations such as these, she looks for suitable materials and links the ideas to the symbolic content, the purpose and function of the materials, until she creates something new from them. In this phase of the design process, graphics, proportion, elegance and a playful approach, as well as the way details work, play a central role for Saskia Diez. Throughout all of this, she is less interested in the pure value of the materials she uses and more in their authenticity. She looks for value that emanates from the beauty and feel of material, whether it is wood, glass, precious gems or gold.

"My jewelry is there to embellish", explains Saskia Diez. However, it is never the jewelry alone that has this effect, but always its interaction with the respective parts of the body, which it emphasizes and which give it room to bloom. Her feel for another dimension in the value of jewelry is evident in her awareness of the individual character of the materials, her precise application of them and top-grade manufacture.

At times it is the cut of precious gems that inspires Saskia Diez to create a particular design, at others the associations stirred up by the engagement ring from Tiffany's, whose formal structures she develops further until she has created a completely new type, which has liberated itself from every hint of imitation. Seafaring knotting techniques inspired her to create the "Knots" series. When she sought to design something uncomplicated and cheerful, it was children's jewelry that gave the designer the idea of using colorful wooden beads for the "Wood" series. With these brightly-colored bracelets and necklaces, she created a jewelry collection which is not too expensive and lets you wear different colors and try out different combinations. Precisely with jewelry like this, which appears very simple at first glance, the quality of production is particularly important for Saskia Diez. There are also extremely delicate pieces in her collection, such as in the "Fine" series. These necklaces, bracelets and rings are virtually invisible and only adorn the wearer's skin with a fine sheen that shimmers in the light.

All of Saskia Diez's designs display great elegance and gentle subtlety, yet at the same time are very feminine and sexy. Her items of jewelry are like discreet gestures. Their subtly playful side sometimes remains hidden from the fleeting glance. Yet that does not seem to be so important. For it is enough when the wearer knows the rules of play. Saskia Diez's designs are quiet and composed. You can make out the luxury of reflection in them. And it is not least this that lends them a unique beauty. Her jewelry was recently awarded the "Premium Fashion Award" for the best design accessory of the fall / winter 2009 / 2010 season at the PREMIUM fashion fair in the context of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin. The series of bags PAPIER won the German Design Price 2010.

Saskia Diez's jewelry is sold in selected concept stores in cities including Berlin, Paris, Tokyo and New York. For those who wouldn't mind doing without the journey, but not the jewelry, her designs can also be purchased from the online shop at www.saskia-diez.com In addition, since November 2008 the designer has been welcoming visitors to her showroom and studio on Geyerstrasse in Munich, where they can take a look at her designs. Aesthetic aspects which are decisive in her jewelry also influenced the interior design of the spaces she conceived in cooperation with Stefan Diez. They are reduced, generous and display charming details, i.e., the same understatement that also sets her jewelry apart.