Orit Elhanati, designer of gold couple jewelry

To describe her childhood, torn between Denmark, Israel and Greece, where her mother, father and grandparents respectively originated, Orit Elhanat pauses and then chooses a term: “Chaotic”. “I was always between two cultures, two tastes. I was always too Scandinavian for the Israelis, too Middle Eastern for the Danes. Before I founded my brand in 2013, the same was true of jewelry: I found everything too minimalistic or too ornate. he says from his studio in Copenhagen.

Since then, he has found a middle way, a very pure hybrid, in his jewelry collections, where the delicacy of forms, without brilliance, marries his favorite metal, this warm yellow gold, and the popular countries.Mediterranean. This one, which sometimes meets black spinels, coral pearls, malachite, diamonds or opals, as if cut into raw nuggets, slabs or elemental medallions, chipped, never smooth.

“I like the idea of ​​sculpting an authentic, traditional, almost antique piece of jewelry. I don’t make any sketches. I’m more into wax and metal prototyping to intuitively get the relief, the texture. These are shapes that can be inspired by nature, like the mountain on the Greek island of Milos. My team laughs at me because every time I have the ambition to develop a more classic, symmetrical piece of jewelry, it fails! »

Already appreciated by loyal customers, Orit Elhanati’s collections are increasingly talking about men. When, in 2021, his label launched on high-end retail site Mr Porter, “Everything disappeared in a week” He is surprised again.