Garment in a garment of light

A vermeil button to close a cardigan, a silver pin for a shirt, a label without a price but with a grand feu enamel or jasper that you hang on a belt loop or zipper… rather than skin, Anna Ksenia’s jewelry adorns clothes. “I always liked the idea that we could dress up the silhouette, hang things on it, like medieval chaplains attached to a belt.” explains the Greek-Romanian who immigrated to France at the age of 8. In 2022, after a career at prestigious houses – Hussein Chalayan, Balenciaga, Loewe… – his own brand Axep served as an experimental laboratory for the ornaments of his clothes.

Today, his research has progressed further, Anna Margalit. “The idea usually comes very quickly. realization, less so. You need to find the right volume, the right curves and ensure that the piece is held well in the fabric, loop or hole. laughs this graduate of the French Fashion Institute, who has made his works in France.

He is not the only one who wanted to decorate clothes and become the basis of jewelry. From young designers to the established houses of Place Vendôme, the wind of textile ornament blows hither and thither, both redundant and invigorating. obviously “There is nothing new, Edited by Paul Paradis, art historian and professor of the history of jewelry art at the School of Jewelry Arts in Paris. In addition to fibulae, which had been around since the Bronze Age, the Renaissance established lavish jewelry worn with crowned heads on clothing as a display of power. See portraits of Henry VIII, whose doublet is covered with gold buttons. And don’t forget that later, when receiving the Persian ambassador, [le 19 février 1715 à Versailles]Louis XIV wore a black coat so weighted with diamonds [l’équivalent de 125 millions de livres] that he had to change after dinner. »

In 2024, jeweled buttons are reborn, for example at Bleue Burnham. The 31-year-old London-based designer crafts them to order, in silver or textured gold and sapphires, to be sewn onto a jacket or worn as a brooch. Other contemporary designers are embracing the belt, such as Israeli-Daniel Orit Elhanat, who designed a jeweled belt with an angular vermeil buckle with American brand Khaite.