Last night, Tallulah Harlech, Coco Brandolini, Petra Palumbo, and Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis traveled to Belgravia, down the cobblestone Grosvenor Crescent Mews—past a mini vintage Aston Martin (with life-size stuffed cheetahs in the back)—and into Lauren Santo Domingo’s strawberry pink–shaded heritage stable turned private Moda Operandi shopping space for goblets of champagne and lemon vodka cocktails. The occasion? A celebration of the just-launched wares of four new-generation, Moda-curated London-based jewelers—namely, Noor Fares, Eugenie Niarchos, Sabine G., and Fernando Jorge.
“Fine jewelry has been so traditional—so old-school,” Santo Domingo said to Caroline Sieber and Elisa Sednaoui Dellal, while examining Niarchos’s sculptural lighting cuffs. “It’s really the last thing to have modernized. These young women are designing fine jewelry that matches the fashion that’s going down the runway. They’ve really managed to create signatures for themselves. And while they’ve influenced each other, they each definitely have a strong point of view.”
That these four fresh gem visionaires also happen to be close friends and supporters made for a night that felt far from business. After drinks, we traveled by car to the nearby Mark’s Club—a quiet members-only club housed in a Mayfair townhouse filled with baroque portraits and a garden’s worth of wildflowers—for walnut salad, herb-roasted chicken, and a molten lava cake that disappeared, well, quite possibly faster than the wine. “We feel incredibly lucky that Lauren wanted to support us and push us,” said a Schiaparelli haute couture–dressed Sabine Ghanem from one candlelit table. “[We all have] very different universes and tastes—and it really works, because it happened to be a really warm and cozy event and everyone got to discover the other one’s work.”
Fares, herself sporting a giant pearl-pinned, costume paper brooch brought out by the Moda team at the end of the fete, was quick to agree: “We’re really lucky—[I love] the idea of showing my work during London Fashion Week, but also being part of a group of talented kinds of people who all have expressed their individuality through their jewelry.”
That the evening closed with all the guests donning Moda’s outsize faux baubles (“I’ll be wearing this to the shows tomorrow,” teased Serena Hood of her paper emerald crown)—and a few trying on each other’s fine jewels (“The best way to see your own piece,” said Sarah Harris)—was a perfect complement to the playful, who’s-next bash.
The post Moda Operandi and Lauren Santo Domingo Celebrate London’s Next Generation of Jewelers at the Mark’s Club appeared first on Vogue.