Text Dzenana Mujadzic | Photography Bastian Achard
Experimental objects such as lighter cases made of silver and set with semi-precious stones, sculptural pill boxes and elegant cigarette holders, necklaces with obelisk-shaped pendants that serve as containers for essential oils, or a magnifying glass that is worn around the neck on a vegan leather cord and, according to the description, is intended for reading the menu or examining a page. Designer Sophie Buhai’s unconventional creations—a fusion of minimalism and surrealism—move fluidly between utility, jewelry, and art object.
Before Sophie Buhai founded her eponymous label in 2015—now known for its contemporary interpretations of the modernist sterling silver jewelry tradition—she studied fashion design at the renowned Parsons School of Design in New York and ran her co-founded fashion line »Vena Cava« for ten years. After that chapter was closed, Buhai found herself back in her hometown of Los Angeles to take some personal time out and the necessary freedom that eventually led her to jewelry and object design: »Creatively, I felt that I wanted something different. There was a shift and I started to do a lot of different things. I was doing interiors at the time I went to a residency in Italy and I brought a lot of materials with me, and I started making jewelry.«
As is so often the case, the metaphorical circle closes with sufficient distance and only much later in life, when the time is ripe. Buhai was first introduced to jewelry much earlier, through her mother and grandmother, who both had a pronounced fondness for striking silver pieces. »I was really inspired by my grandmother and my mother, these women that wore really bold silver jewelry. That jewelry was mid-century Scandinavian or Mexican silver jewelry or Native American jewelry«, she recalls. She had always worn some of these special pieces herself, but only now she realized how timelessly modern they still were. When she started making jewelry, dainty necklaces and pendants made of brass and gold had been particularly popular, but she herself had never been interested in the conventional understanding of jewelry as a merely functional accessory. Her designs are primarily aimed at the more unconventional type of woman or man, whose interest is primarily in the idea of the design and less in the monetary value, she explains her artistically influenced view of jewelry beyond diamonds, rubies and emeralds. However, Buhai expands the sometimes dusty perception of jewelry not only by clearly referring to the design aspect, but also by naturally embedding functional objects in the range. By conceiving of her designs as small sculptures—»mini-sculptures«—the concept takes on a new dimension—from ornamentation, a merely decorative object, to an art object.
TOOTHPICK AND CASE Sterling silver; PYRAMID PILL BOX Sterling silver, yellow beryl stone
Following the logic of this insight and in view of how closely the brand is linked to her as a person, one could conclude that she herself would also fit more into the category artist than designer—if categories are necessary at all. However, when asked about this porous boundary between design and art, she refers to the difficulty of demarcating the transition from one to the other, but clearly defines herself as a designer. Artist’ is too difficult a word. What is certain is that her inherent understanding of jewelry as an art form and the interaction between aesthetic and emotional components instinctively places her in the larger context of her brand identity, creating a narrative that tells a personal story. She tries to be authentic in everything she does, says Buhai.
»When I think of luxury to myself, it’s things that are coming from a person, coming from a soul.«
How honest authenticity can be consciously brought about is a central question in connection with emotional brand management and probably one of the most important aspects in the contemporary interpretation of luxury, which is geared more than ever towards values that can be located in a psychological dimension. The focus is on conveying the idea of both individuality and connectedness, which leads to a kind of subjectively perceived exclusivity. Buhai also recognizes this and gets to the heart of the matter without any theoretical digressions: »When I think of luxury to myself, it’s things that are coming from a person, coming from a soul. It’s so rare that things feel hand-touched coming from a designer or an artist, personally.« She goes on to elaborate on her concept of luxury, in which the soulful object takes center stage and the brand name is more of a seal of quality: »I think when you have that connection with an object, it’s quite powerful. So to me, that connection is what makes something luxury. I don’t think it’s the dollar amount or the brand name. It’s the experience that you’re really feeling with that piece.«
MAGNIFYING GLASS NECKLACE Sterling silver, vegan leather cord
This fragile space between soul and product is created and maintained through the art of storytelling, in which image-based communication dominates the written word. At Buhai, however, you will search in vain for loud visual courting of attention, which nevertheless does not diminish the brand’s presence in social media. A picture does not tell a story, but many pictures provide a possible narrative and, as in any good story, recipients find a free space to emotionally inscribe themselves in it, to charge it personally. »We don’t use words really that much. I think we put the work out there, and we’re very image-based. And beyond that, you take what you want from it«, says the designer.
»I’ve always kind of loved this gray area in between different design disciplines. And so I’ve kept that throughout the brand.«
The staging, often reduced to the object alone, paired with the restrained aesthetics of her visual language and the interspersing of style-defining intermediate elements function like a tailor-made place of longing—a narrative anchor point that both draws the viewer in and releases them. Buhai’s visually elegant language, like her designs, carries the timeless charm, the aura of long faded but unmistakable old world glamor and evokes associations with the glamorous days of Hollywood. When asked what makes her home city of Los Angeles special, given the persistent prejudices against the relatively young and superficial metropolis, she answers with a wave of her hand, dismissing what she perceives as a distorted perception before it can attract too much attention. For her, the appeal of living in Los Angeles lies above all in the unencumbered freedom that inevitably restricts tradition.
In terms of Buhai’s design process, this initially appears to be a paradoxical advantage, as it begins with visual references to historical themes—the broad scope of which ranges from the Japanese Edo period to Romeo Gigli in the 1990s—where Gigli’s vision of »modern nostalgia« seems somewhat less distant from Buhai’s designs at first glance. Aware of her numerous sources of inspiration spanning times and worlds steeped in tradition, she resolves the apparent contradiction with the following words: »But with all of that, I’m always trying to make something that feels new. It can have references to create a conversation of design history, but I think it should always feel like there’s one thing or the mixture of elements that makes it a new creation.«
DAWN LIGHTER CASE Sterling silver, set moonstones; RISING MOON FLASK Sterling silver, set moonstones, onyx cap
Buhai’s designs are exemplary of the organic interplay of simplicity, balance and harmony; as soon as all the elements interlock, the sketches become prototypes. Initially made exclusively by a wax carver, she now also works with a CAD designer on 3D models—after first having to come to terms with the idea—and argues: »I was really anti-CAD in the beginning, and everything was hand-carved wax. But I’ve actually come to embrace CAD. With a good CAD designer, I think it is a tool that can be used in a very human way.« Once the model has been perfected, the mold is cast in metal, followed by fine-tuning. The designs are produced by highly specialized artisans based in the Los Angeles Jewelry District, a vibrant center for jewelry in all its forms in the heart of downtown since the 1920s.
The designer’s intensive involvement with craftsmanship and materials also regularly takes her to the world’s largest gemstone and mineral fair, the Tucson Gem Fair—also known as the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show—in the US state of Arizona. Her interest in the visual and technical potential of stone as a material, however, eludes traditional processing, in which stone comes before setting. For her, design continues to be the top priority, and the stone, which is still raw at the time of purchase, must conform to this. »We’re creating our own forms and are really trying to push what we can do with our stone carvers, how large we can go, and the different shapes we can work in,« gives Buhai an insight into this self-imposed challenge, somewhere between technical expertise and artistic zeal. This local availability of knowledge and resources also gives the designer some creative freedom to design pieces that, according to Buhai, are more about the concept and the idea and less about selling a large number of them. These include, for example, sculptural objects made of sterling silver, such as an elegant toothpick with an accompanying hand-hammered case, for—as they say—the evening bag or the dining table, as well as a modernist-looking spoon for children or a hip flask with moonstones set in a setting and a hand-carved onyx lid, whose extravagance is tempered by being described as a collector’s item or a potential family heirloom—which is in line with her belief that objects always tell a story, preserve memories, and convey emotions.
Her open-minded approach to the potential of different craft and design disciplines also manifests itself in her studio, a place where everything comes together. She took on the interior design together with her friend and long-term collaborator Gabriela Rosales, the founder of Formative Modern, a Los Angeles-based gallery specializing in early 20th century design. Since the beginning about ten years ago, curated objects and furniture have always been part of Sophie Buhai’s brand world, never as a conceptual addition, but as an intuitive one. »I’ve always kind of loved this gray area between different design disciplines. And so I’ve kept that throughout the brand,« she explains, uncompromisingly filling this free space with her innate, authentic synthesis of design, art, and culture, which is subject to constant and inimitable human and artistic evolution.
Cover story CHAPTER №XI »TASTEMAKERS« — WINTER 2024/25
