Rooms With a North Sea View Last year, when Micha Pycke, 40, and Albane Paret, 39, bought an apartment in Ostend — a once run-down Belgian seaside town that, in recent years, has become a favorite of artists and designers — they knew they wanted the place to be, says Pycke, “something more than an…
In 2014, Fie Isolde’s future husband wrote her a 28th birthday card that, she said, was “full of dreams about all the things we were going to do.” “When I got the card,” the Danish jewelry designer recalled last month during a video interview from her boutique in the Sycamore neighborhood of Los Angeles, “my…
Justin Noggle, who owns a power washing business in Marysville, Wash., was struggling with anxiety and depression last summer as he navigated some financial challenges with his company. A counselor suggested that Mr. Noggle, 37, try jotting down what he was grateful for each day. For a while, he did, using the notes app on…
The black-dappled white panther, sometimes curling around the wrist as a bracelet, sometimes crouched low as a brooch or glaring from a choker, is Cartier’s most emblematic animal. But it is not the only one. Tigers striped with black spinels and emerald-studded crocodiles gripping dials in their teeth were among the many animal-inspired timepieces Cartier…
Forms isn’t a household name, but the Hong Kong jewelry house is drawing attention for its unusual contemporary style. A Japanese buckle from the late 19th century inspired the company’s co-founder Tzvika Janover’s latest obsession. The buckle was crafted in a Japanese gold and copper alloy called shakudo, its velvety brown patina unlike anything he’d…
Of all the jewelers in Paris, Walid Akkad may be the most successful one you’ve never heard of. In three decades, he has rarely granted an interview about his work. His clients include entrepreneurs, Hollywood stars and socialites, but, in a world ruled by social media peacocks, he opts for the luxury of discretion. His…
Ming Lampson was sitting in her Notting Hill studio in West London, peering at the Nigerian aquamarines, sapphires from Madagascar, fire opals and other gems sprinkled across sheets of white paper on her desk. “I am trying to honor the stone, thinking, ‘How do I make a home for the gem in the most unique…
Along the teeming narrow streets of this centuries-old trading port, and among the modern-day merchants of the old souk who have immigrated from across the Middle East, South Asia and beyond, an urban project is paying homage to 5,000 years of pearling history in Bahrain. The newest part of the project is the Pearling Path,…
The St. James’s district of London is known for its gentlemen’s clubs, aristocratic residences and craft specialists including tailors, milliners and perfumers. Recently joining them is the 175-year-old British jeweler Hancocks & Co., which last month relocated its showroom from a shop within the Burlington Arcade in the Mayfair district to a renovated Georgian townhouse…
The Italian playwright and politician Gabriele d’Annunzio entered a Milan shop in 1922, intrigued by intricate sketches displayed in the window. Inside, he discovered Mario Buccellati and a goldsmithing expertise rooted in the traditions of the Italian Renaissance. Their encounter sparked a lifelong friendship and patronage, ultimately shaping the fortunes of the young craftsman and…