There is something magical about the jewellery by Daria Jankowiak: it enchants with its softness and emphasizes feminity. Because the most important thing for the designer is to ensure that women feel beautiful in her jewellery.
Current trends are expressed more and more also in the jewellery sector – what is the influence of fashion on your designs?
Above other things I want my collections to be ageless and always up to date. I want women to wear them again even after a long time and feel again that they are beautiful. While designing I try to emphasize the character of the jewellery and not the trends because they are changeable.
I think that there is some division in jewellery: on the one hand there is artificial jewellery, being tantamount to seasonal, and on the other hand there is classical jewellery. So if someone cares only about fashion he goes to H&M and buys “plastic beads”. In my opinion there is no point in relating it to the jewellery made of precious stones. I would not like at all if someone considered my jewellery as seasonal.
Frequently my clients are subjected to the dictate of my taste as I design and produce only such jewellery which I like and I feel good wearing it. I think that jewellery not only decorates but can constitute a hidden funny message as well. Despite a closed form of jewellery I try to slip a bit of humour into it. In my opinion a great example is a collection designed 2 years ago and entitled “A Black Widow”, where a symbol of an absolute power – a pistol – turned into a symbol of a strong woman, a woman of the 20th century. The game was to add to this symbol some feminine elements: pearls, gold, crystal. While the “Al Dente” collection is the example of breaking tight restrictions through combining large semiprecious stones with “silver” pasta. It is a bit like a game of spontaneous cooking that is choosing such ingredients which we like the most of all and not the ones from a cookery book – very often the effect is the most delicious one.
Which jewellery the Polish women want most?
I observe fast and substantial change of trends in Poland – even a few years ago the Polish women were looking for a very toned down jewellery, but for about two years they have been asking for a colourful jewellery. The previous season was a real frenzy of colours! I think that this is going to change very soon. I have noticed that the latest offers from catwalks are toned down and the models wear very few pieces of jewellery. I am a bit worried because of this fact since this is a sign that inevitably there will come a period of minimalism – it will concern also decorations and their colours. The perfect time, as it comes to this factor, is just coming to an end – so far there has been the fashion for combining the styles, everyone was able to find something for themselves. Such universalism allowing wearing the old with the new is inspiring and used to give a free hand to those with their own invention. Because stiff following the rules of fashion in my opinion does not really work.
Will we find these trend changes also in your new collection?
After my previous collection decorated with colourful stones I am heading towards a certain calming down: I am standardizing a form and I am paying even more attention to a wearing comfort. And it is not only a result of trends observation but above other things it constitutes my inner need of changes. I am sure that also in the jewellery sector there has come a time for changes and there will be a comeback of such things which have not been worn for a long time: rings and bracelets. My new collection will be presented for the first time at the Amberif fair in March this year. There are going to be forms designed as a whole and as if they were carved in one lump. I like to design with silver a lot and that is why there will be a lot of silver in this new collection.
Will there be a place for amber in this new collection as well?
Absolutely, amber has been my companion for ever. Generally I have quite a great experience in work with amber – in S&A, where I used to work for a few years, my task was to design only the jewellery decorated with amber. It is a very malleable and friendly material and it can be approached to in many ways: it can be treated as a colour, as the opposite of other materials.
A few years ago you finished a cooperation with S&A and you created the Motyle workshop – was it worth it?
It is a totally different comfort. The truth is I work more now, but I do what I like. My work for S&A was undoubtedly a school of life and that is why a great experience – at school no one taught us to design for an industrial scale. That is why I think that it is the best order in the way of development of each designer who finishes only a school. Meanwhile I get the impression that many graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz treat industrial designing as something worse than artistic jewellery designing. In my opinion it is quite on the contrary – this is a much bigger art. Talking about “industrial” collections I think about the collections designed for a larger scale – in such case the designer above other things has to be a great observer of the environment and very often has to predict, even decide about what is going to be fashionable.
