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The pairing of black and white is both practical and creative, taking its cue from newsprint, photography and art – like Bridget Riley’s dizzying Op Art screen print patterns from the 1960s. For pragmatism, you couldn’t get a more graphic and legible combination for sharing information than black ink on white paper. That combination also communicates beautifully in jewelry.
“Black and white are technically devoid of color, yet they function with deep emotional resonance,” observes jewelry designer Melanie Georgacopoulos.
Black with white is a recurring juxtaposition of opposites that both avant-garde and contemporary fashion design have explored. In jewelry, the bold architectural shapes of century-old Art Deco pieces in onyx and diamonds still look resolutely modern because of that monochromatic combination. As the Georgians learned a century earlier, a blackened-gold or -silver setting for white diamonds can make the gemstones sing.
The pairing of onyx, black enamel or black diamonds with pearls or white diamonds is a familiar choice in modern jewelry. Anita Ko’s black- and white-diamond ear climbers are a case in point. So are Renato Cipullo’s Splendente letter pendants in black onyx with a white diamond dot, in a font that draws on 1970s motifs and Italian graphic design. But those aren’t the only black materials making it into jewelry. Danish jeweler Kinraden uses sustainable mpingo wood with silver, sometimes in optical stripe designs to emphasize the contrast. Beirut-based Clara Chehab wraps a rough black tourmaline in circles of gold and diamonds to create a stud earring in her Gaia collection, and Athenian designer Nikos Koulis combines ceramic or black enamel with diamonds for the sleek, graphic shapes that make his jewelry inherently elegant.
In her new Eclipse collection, Georgacopoulos explores the geometry of luminous pearls with onyx cubes, threads seed pearls through black ruthenium-plated silver chain, and sandwiches pearls between shiny ruthenium discs for cuffs. The aim, explains the Hamburg, Germany-based designer, is to capture that fleeting moment where light and shadow align. The monochromatic arrangements examine the idea of transition and contrast through material, tone and form.
Blackened gold is a signature of Mumbai-based Studio Renn, where Rahul Jhaveri is setting sharp trillion- and modified triangular-shaped diamonds in a series of limited-edition works. “The monochrome look makes the pieces more contemporary, less familiar, and therefore more distinctive,” he says. “By blackening the gold, we attempt to subvert the metal itself. The contrast against the diamond emphasizes and highlights it in a way it otherwise wouldn’t.” While he admits it did take Studio Renn’s collectors a few years to warm to the idea of blackened gold, “this is now something we are known for, and collectors request it.”
For Singapore-based jewelry brand State Property, known for its Art Deco geometry, the part that has taken time is bringing its private and retail clients around to wearing black and white together in the first place.
“We have found that there is often a black-[jewelry-buying] client and a white-[jewelry-buying] client, and they do not always overlap,” says cofounder Afzal Imram. “Some retailers respond much more strongly to the white pieces, [and] others consistently to the black.” Black tends to feel bolder, stronger and more dramatic, while “white is softer, breezier and carries a different kind of luxury.”
However, his wife and fellow designer Ruiyin Lin believes the balance and visual clarity of pairing black with white “allows the design to read in a very immediate way and brings out the strength of the silhouette.” Adding a touch of yellow gold softens the contrast just enough and gives the piece warmth, she says. “Together, they strike a balance we are always interested in at State Property: something graphic yet elegant, strong yet easy to wear.”
Main image: Eclipse chain necklace with pearls and onyx on model. (Melanie Georgacopoulos)
