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Do you impose these kinds of parameters on yourself—limitations in color, material and size?
Constantly! Probably because I was raised Catholic. I always blame it on my Catholicism! I saw the trailer for Doubt the other day and it was all so familiar. So I draw ideas almost exclusively on graph paper, as a sign of just how uptight I am, then I deviate. I take something formal like the oval and then add to it, as if something grew on it organically. It's like Venice, with all those barnacles everywhere.
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Are you a traveler?
I think travel is the most inspiring thing, but I'm not the type to sit in a church square and sketch. It's only when I come back and it's filtered through my life here that it's insp300x600tion: smells and sounds that come together in unexpected ways. It seems important to be open to all of that. I try to imprint. I try to remember the moment—the wind on my skin, the feeling in my heart, in my mind. I take an emotional snapshot and then move on.
You make things that weather well...
I use leather or stainless steel that looks like leather. I love the contrast of precious and base metals. I am obsessed with what they do together, like alchemy. I highlight the connections, which aren't hidden but riveted, screwed or held together with gold. I like this obvious connection. It's the human touch that reminds me a person has made it. I like things that weather, that change, that have a life.
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So far I gather your work is informed by science fiction, Star Wars, nature, art history, religion, order and chaos…
Order in chaos. I think that there is something interesting about trying to find the perfect asymmetric rhythm. You find something perfect but there is something unexpected. I am always switching things out, trying different things, moving things around.
Is that your aesthetic?
I have aesthetic schizophrenia. My entire style compass can shift by one thing I buy, even a pair of sneakers. I love that. I'm constantly shifting my direction, constantly inspired by some new weird thing and shooting off of it in some new direction.
At what point do you say a piece is done? How do you know?
When I have solved the problem or run out of time. But as we are building on things, I can always come back to it. I've been working on this bracelet for months.
Sonia Rykiel said she always shapes her collection by drawing from one thing from the season before.
We are obsessed with the idea of evolution. Just when we finish a piece, we always think wouldn’t it be cool if we did it like this instead.
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You design for men and women. How does the process differ?
Women can wear men's jewelry, but not the other way around. Men's jewelry is a much bigger challenge. First and foremost I make personal jewelry, things that people want to wear all the time. I can make crazy things, but ultimately I want to make that heirloom piece, a concept really applies to men. He doesn’t ever want to look like he bought it. Instead, it's always been a part of him. It has to be talismanic. Is that even a word? It should look like it signifies a special moment, an event, a journey or an experience. Only incidentally is it jewelry. I don’t want to see a man in a big bunch of diamonds. I don’t mind seeing an old hippie with a huge turquoise belt buckle, but a man in a lot of Chrome Hearts jewelry is disgusting to me. It's drag. It's silly.
And for women?
The same can apply to women, but because of the society we live in, women are…
More fickle?
No, men are far more fickle! They are more concerned with the implications of what they wear. They don’t want to call attention. Women are easier; they want to draw attention. They have a love for stand-out jewelry. This makes it more fun. I started with women’s jewelry, but it always had to have a sense that it was borrowed from her dad—this heirloom quality. Like her father's watch or her boyfriend's ring that she wore on her chain. Then that girl became a woman, got a job and started to buy her own jewelry. She grew up and left that schmuck she was dating!
Is there a particular person in mind when you design?
She is always played by Charlotte Rampling! She is devastatingly beautiful, but she couldn’t give a shit about what anyone else thinks. She could just as easily wear a beautiful gown or a man's suit with her hair slicked back. As for jewelry, she is wearing an armful of junk that she wears all the time. Her jewelry is a mix of high and low, and it's cumulative. There is a moment when she puts on that giant piece—but she wears it, she owns it, it never wears her. She is telling her own story.
Philip Crangi is available at Odin and Barneys New York, Browns Focus in London, and On Peddler in Hong Kong, among other locations.
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