Paris-born, Berlin-based fine jewellery designer Lou Andrea Savoir has launched her 'radically refined... with a sensual touch' brand Savoir Joaillerie back in 2010. Recently she set about a line of creative collaborations under the title SAVOIR By aiming to reveal the modernity and expressive potential of jewellery. First one up is a collaboration with Trevor Good, Canadian Berlin-based photographer.![]()
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CURRENT OBSESSION: Can you tell us more about how this idea to collaborate with non-jewellery artists came about?
Lou Andrea Savoir: The collaboration has to do primarily with interpretation or direction, akin to a musician with a score or a director with his subject. I approach artists in different fields, and ask them if they would do me the honor of making images of their own, featuring my pieces in whichever way they are inspired to - and as visibly or as subtly as they like.
CURRENT OBSESSION: What was it inspired by?
Lou Andrea Savoir: It came about because my network is full of artists, artists whose work I look up to, and who, thankfully, are also inspired by mine.
Apart from within the Contemporary Jewellery scene, which I love, jewellery is such an under-tapped medium for expression and exploration. On one hand there is the creation of the piece and on the other there is the input of the person who wears it.
CURRENT OBSESSION: What exactly is the process of selection of the artist, and of the later collaboration?
Lou Andrea Savoir: The process of selection is basically: I must like their work and they must like mine. We select each other. Then it is different with each artist. Sometimes I have a lot of input on the images - other times not. I do reserve the right not to use an image under my name. The only definite line I draw for myself is vulgarity, something I would consider degrading or disparaging of women or men. It's a very personal line, it also has to do with context. Some images make sense in a gallery but not on the website, where there is a more open commercial aspect, like the e-shop. It's a layered operation and I like being flexible, staying open to the different opportunities. Personally I have to be sure of an image to put it out there. But if the artist wants to present one of the images I haven't chosen under their own name, it's their work - and, of course they can.
CURRENT OBSESSION: Is there a financial arrangement?
Lou Andrea Savoir: There is more of an exchange agreement, a piece for a piece type of thing, including everyone involved, and then we all try to get the images out there as much as we can for each other's benefit. Through Savoir Joaillerie I'll contact galleries and art magazines as well as culture and fashion press with their images. Savoir Joaillerie covers costs, and I use the images as promotion, but not as advertising, I leave in the artists name, always.
CURRENT OBSESSION: How does photography help you to communicate ideas behind the collaboration and who does it for you?
Lou Andrea Savoir: In the case of photography, the pictures are the collaboration. In the case of a drawing like Jen Rays', the pictures are more documentation of the collaboration. I want to show her piece and the jewellery inspired by it, and she has major shows coming up on her side, we're setting it up. I will get to a place where we do a show of each series, the project is only 3 artists in, and it's already so rich. I can't wait to get this work out there, but first I want to dedicate proper attention to Trevor Good's photos, which really set the bar high.
CURRENT OBSESSION: What is your opinion is the most exciting part of such collaborations and what is the toughest?
Lou Andrea Savoir: The most exciting part is connecting with the artist, seeing the images for the first time, discovering their interpretation. I also love working on the images when it does happen, editing the series... The latest series we are making with Alex Coggin of the Calvin Klein Group. As a director and a performer he is used to collaboration and thrives on it. He directed the images and invited me to be involved with formatting, editing and post production.
The toughest would be if an artist took time and effort to produce images I really can't get behind, because I couldn't use them.
CURRENT OBSESSION: What will be your future collaboration? And what do you expect from it?
Lou Andrea Savoir: The next one planned is with Jasmine Illiana Pasquill, who is a New York-based artist and a world-renowned Post-Production behind-the-scenes genie. She has a bank of her own images and I have my product shots, this will be a 100% Photoshop operation. I'm very excited to see what she will do with these straight-up product shots, also because her esthetic is pretty maximalist compared to mine.
I'd like to work with a dancer, in a series combining full body-in-motion and close-up shots. That's a tough one because I have to find the right photographer, I am thinking of this woman here in Berlin who does fantastically lit sport photography, that would be really interesting.
I would like a shoot with great clothes. And any opportunity to travel back to Mexico. Pyramids?
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http://savoirjoaillerie.com
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CURRENT OBSESSION: Can you tell us more about how this idea to collaborate with non-jewellery artists came about?
Lou Andrea Savoir: The collaboration has to do primarily with interpretation or direction, akin to a musician with a score or a director with his subject. I approach artists in different fields, and ask them if they would do me the honor of making images of their own, featuring my pieces in whichever way they are inspired to - and as visibly or as subtly as they like.
CURRENT OBSESSION: What was it inspired by?
Lou Andrea Savoir: It came about because my network is full of artists, artists whose work I look up to, and who, thankfully, are also inspired by mine.
Apart from within the Contemporary Jewellery scene, which I love, jewellery is such an under-tapped medium for expression and exploration. On one hand there is the creation of the piece and on the other there is the input of the person who wears it.
CURRENT OBSESSION: What exactly is the process of selection of the artist, and of the later collaboration?
Lou Andrea Savoir: The process of selection is basically: I must like their work and they must like mine. We select each other. Then it is different with each artist. Sometimes I have a lot of input on the images - other times not. I do reserve the right not to use an image under my name. The only definite line I draw for myself is vulgarity, something I would consider degrading or disparaging of women or men. It's a very personal line, it also has to do with context. Some images make sense in a gallery but not on the website, where there is a more open commercial aspect, like the e-shop. It's a layered operation and I like being flexible, staying open to the different opportunities. Personally I have to be sure of an image to put it out there. But if the artist wants to present one of the images I haven't chosen under their own name, it's their work - and, of course they can.
CURRENT OBSESSION: Is there a financial arrangement?
Lou Andrea Savoir: There is more of an exchange agreement, a piece for a piece type of thing, including everyone involved, and then we all try to get the images out there as much as we can for each other's benefit. Through Savoir Joaillerie I'll contact galleries and art magazines as well as culture and fashion press with their images. Savoir Joaillerie covers costs, and I use the images as promotion, but not as advertising, I leave in the artists name, always.
CURRENT OBSESSION: How does photography help you to communicate ideas behind the collaboration and who does it for you?
Lou Andrea Savoir: In the case of photography, the pictures are the collaboration. In the case of a drawing like Jen Rays', the pictures are more documentation of the collaboration. I want to show her piece and the jewellery inspired by it, and she has major shows coming up on her side, we're setting it up. I will get to a place where we do a show of each series, the project is only 3 artists in, and it's already so rich. I can't wait to get this work out there, but first I want to dedicate proper attention to Trevor Good's photos, which really set the bar high.
CURRENT OBSESSION: What is your opinion is the most exciting part of such collaborations and what is the toughest?
Lou Andrea Savoir: The most exciting part is connecting with the artist, seeing the images for the first time, discovering their interpretation. I also love working on the images when it does happen, editing the series... The latest series we are making with Alex Coggin of the Calvin Klein Group. As a director and a performer he is used to collaboration and thrives on it. He directed the images and invited me to be involved with formatting, editing and post production.
The toughest would be if an artist took time and effort to produce images I really can't get behind, because I couldn't use them.
CURRENT OBSESSION: What will be your future collaboration? And what do you expect from it?
Lou Andrea Savoir: The next one planned is with Jasmine Illiana Pasquill, who is a New York-based artist and a world-renowned Post-Production behind-the-scenes genie. She has a bank of her own images and I have my product shots, this will be a 100% Photoshop operation. I'm very excited to see what she will do with these straight-up product shots, also because her esthetic is pretty maximalist compared to mine.
I'd like to work with a dancer, in a series combining full body-in-motion and close-up shots. That's a tough one because I have to find the right photographer, I am thinking of this woman here in Berlin who does fantastically lit sport photography, that would be really interesting.
I would like a shoot with great clothes. And any opportunity to travel back to Mexico. Pyramids?
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http://savoirjoaillerie.com
