Architecture...at your finger: Matina Amanita's "Globetrotter" series

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In previous posts I have explored the connection between architecture and fashion and also compared buildings to shoes. Yet I still haven’t examined the connection between jewels and architecture and, after having spent the last few weeks concentrating on reports about the various fashion weeks, I feel compelled to focus a bit of Matina Amanita’s architectural jewels.

A while back I used to do stuff for an Italian fashion site that paid almost nothing for each article. One of the pieces I did for them a couple of years ago was about the fashion scene in Thailand. In my piece I also mentioned among the Thai up-and-coming brands Sretsis, a sort of joint venture between three sisters, Pimdao, Kly and Matina.

I’m glad to see the latter has also carved a career for herself with her accessories and jewels. Matina studied jewellery design at Central Saint Martins and graduated from Parsons School of Design with a degree in product design. Inspired by her travels, Matina has created a series entitled “Globetrotter” that features cocktail rings that feature the most beautiful architectures around the world.

Using gold plated silver, gemstones, zirconia, synthetic opals and enamel, the designer recreated Bondi Beach’s cliff, Shibuya’s Hachiko Square, New York’s Chrysler building, Paris’ Chambre de Bonne, Moscow’s St Basil’s Cathedral, Ratchada’s Elephant Building, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia and Casa Battlo and a great British institution, the pub.

There is something in Matina’s art that reminds me of Art Deco and it’s not just the ziggurat shaped dome of the Chrysler Building, but that perfect blend of love for the future and for severe and tall buildings such as skyscrapers, and that passion for exotic elements that the Art Deco movement seemed to have. So that while her rhodium plated ring with the geometrically shaped Shibuya Triangle features a strangely futuristic and slightly gothic construction, her “Golden Taj” rings inspired by the Mughal Architecture in New Delhi and Agra call to mind tales of faraway exotic lands.

At times Matina’s designs seem to have the same quality of Georges Fouquet's jewels, they are indeed grand and fantastic yet a bit kitsch, but it's exactly this oxymoronic quality that intrigues. Blending urban sophistication with monumental architectures, Matina Amanita has created a bold architectural experiment that fascinates, a way of wearing the world or memories of a journey on your fingers rather than simply having the world at your fingertips.