Fierce LDN: Brokenfab

Continuing our look into the world of Jewellery design, Planet Notion talks to Brokenfab’s designer and founder Fabienne Morel. Of Swiss origin, Fabienne is inspired by both club culture and African tribal design. Her current AW11 collection ‘Disco Beading Vol 1’ resonates volumes of London’s nightclubs, as well as street style from the 1960s to the 1980s. Created to visualise dance and street culture, Brokenfab features geometric shapes and bright colour clashes:

PlanetNotion: Accessories are so important in the completion of an outfit and allow for a lot of true, meaningful self-expression. Can you describe your aesthetic or design ethos?

Fabienne Morel: Elaborate geometric colour-clashes and stitching exquisite hand-beaded jewellery in geometric colour-clashes. It’s handmade so avoids any association with mass-market methods of production. It’s also edgy and glamorous and never scared of combining crazy colour combinations where you can see the rhythm and joy of dancing. I’ve also got a hunger for spiritually inspired jewellery with an attitude where genuine and thoughtful ideas manifest in patterns and colourful glass beading.

PN: What made you become an accessory designer rather than apparel?

FM: I am a trained textile designer so I haven’t studied fashion design. For me the beaded jewels are textiles where I combine multiple patterns and the touch of the beaded net is essentially a textile.

PN: There is something timeless about Jewellery that other clothing items don’t share (with the ethos of passing on to loved ones and from generation to generation) is that an element included in your design process?

FM: I try to create jewels that transcend seasons. Every collection combines strong colour clashes that sometimes push the sensibilities of conventional colour beyond perceptions of the everyday public. For me, colour represents mood, emotion and an energy in which individuals are challenged emotively through exposing themselves through the visualisation of physically wearing the pieces.

PN: The intricacy of jewellery and its possibilities for fantastical design is immense is there anything in particular you are trying to express through your designs?

FM: Love, happiness, fun, joy, music, rhythm, dancing, movements, club culture and a joy of patterns combined with crazy colour combination. It’s about soul, love, life, spiritual, healing.

PN:  Can you describe your technical process in producing jewellery?

FM: All pieces are handmade, intricately detailed with extreme attention to the very finest detail. Hours of work are inspired by relentless hours of film and TV!

PN: Detail is very important in accessory design and its beauty, is that something you enjoy in your design creation?

FM: Yes I do, very important for me. I’m very selective about the quality of the beads. I’m using superior quality – Japanese glass beads with a great focus on tones and colours that express a certain mood and energy.  It often takes me days of reflection and intricate work to refine the final creation.

PN: What can we expect to see from you in the future?

FM: Next I will be doing brooches and one of my long time visions is a big hand beaded wall hanger or hand-beaded curtain with glass beads.

PN:  Who would you ideally like to see wearing you’re designs?

FM: I don’t see a specific type wearing my designs. Whoever loves it and feels happy to wear it shall wear it. It can be a teenager, a sixty-year-old woman or a young man.

PN: What’s your favourite piece from you’re current collection and can you explain why?

FM: It’s got to be the bracelet. It is very energetic and spiritual. I love the combination of the strong colours with the regal gold. It’s like wearing your heart on your sleeve.

PN:  What gives you your initial ideas and inspiration every season? How do you translate your vision into realised items?

FM: I’m inspired by lots of different things. It is a feeling, a vibe which comes from people, dynamics of the street culture, internet, blogs, saved images, colours, politics, everyday life, club culture, beats, the streets, exhibitions. What’s very important is my love for music and dancing. For the “Disco & Boogie Beading” collection I was inspired by the Italian Designer Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis design group, Frank Stella and I was listening to lot of Boogie and Disco Music from the 70s and 80s.

The new collection “Spiritual Knightness” has been influenced by the current situation of the world. Our worldview changed dramatically. The European economy can’t give us the security we thought we had in the past. Revolutions, riots – we are in a shift of paradigms. The “Knightness” is a spiritual modern warrior of power. She symbolises strengths and brings healing and she is not scared of life. It’s the first time I used gold pleated beads, which symbolise healing.

- Kathryn Duncan