fenton

>> Earlier this afternoon, in a private room at the Four Seasons Restaurant in midtown Manhattan, Fenton designer Dana Lorenz presented her Spring 2012 collection on seven stoic models dressed head-to-toe in ivory. "Chloe and Valentino," Lorenz said of the models' monochrome ensembles, while guests such as Mark Holgate and Meredith Melling Burke snapped pictures and chatted jovially. It was a relaxed yet refined atmosphere, one that was perfectly in-step with the pastel-dotted collection. Inspired by Miami's Art Deco architecture, this was the softer side of Fenton — fringed duster necklaces were accented with crystals and pearls, and silk chokers were strung with dyed turquoise and moonstone. "It’s very playful,” the designer explained. “I usually go for a dark strength in my work, but Spring is about color and to me, these pastels still feel powerful.”

Click through to see our snaps from the presentation.

For her first-ever resort collection, Fenton jewelry designer Dana Lorenz was inspired by a necklace she created for her recent CFDA Swarovski award nomination. “I wanted to explore the clash of traditional jewelry ideas with something nontraditional, like speaker wire,” said Lorenz, who used crystal, pearls, and the aforementioned speaker wire for the Swarovski project as well as her 25-piece resort lineup. “I see resort as a good time to do something different. It’ll be a good way for me to take risks and give the customer something newer and fresher." New and fresh styles for Fenton include thin cables tied into neat little bows, wrapped around oversize crystals, or made into tassels that drip from necklaces and earrings. See the entire resort collection from Fenton in the gallery below.

>> Fall 2009 is jewelry's time to shine, judging by all of the collaborations debuting during Fashion Week.  Besides Alexander Wang working with Paris Kain of AbraxasRex on "industrial," "animalistic" pieces, Bensoni commissioned Bing Bang's Anna Sheffield to do candy heart necklaces with pyramid pendants, Jason Wu enlisted Philip Crangi to add a "tough element" to his collection, Gilles Mendel and Subversive's Justin Giunta teamed up for chains and jewels to will appear on and worked into the J.Mendel collection, Eddie Borgo channeled his triangle obsession for Jen Kao, producing a sharp set of baubles — and he also working with Joseph Altuzarra.  Not to mention a variety of other partners in jeweldom: Hervé Van der Straeten and Ruffian, Thakoon and Fenton's Dana Lorenz, DanniJo and Trovata, Roxanne Assouline and Brian Reyes . . .

Needless to say, the bijoux will be aplenty this season — especially because those partnerships are a good way to for jewelry designers get pieces out there without spending money — "You'll see a lot of collaborations going on with designers — like Irene Neuwirth is doing jewelry for Richard Chai — so you can see the talent at the same time," says CFDA executive director Steven Kolb.
*image: source, source, source