Treating the body as a canvas and conceived of as a second skin, the new collection tattoos-as-jewelry by Caroline Gaspard – infused with the spirit of the tribal warrior – marries oceanic lines with Akillis’s signature style. Offered in black & white, this line plays with a palette as bold as it is pure, as masculine as it is feminine.
Moral foundations and a creative adventure
The artistic director was captivated by the commendable courage and strength that inspired the Inkings, just as she was inspired by the heroism and mindset of the legendary Greek, Achilles, who has lent his name to the Akillis brand for over 10 years.
A world of shapes
The authentic Maori style, curved and pointed, highlights the lines and muscles of the body. The jeweler injects her own graphic rock style into this timeless aesthetic. Caroline adds a new seductive dimension to the established Akillis stylebook of python scales and steel triangles. She forces contrasts into conversation, clashing and melding the swells, slits, soft curves and keen points of waves, harpoons, spirals, and arrows. The triangle, for example – an Akillis calling-card symbolizes tenacity among Oceanic people and crops up in black diamond and hollowed-out shark teeth motifs.
Tattoo high jewelry: innovative and luxurious jewelry-as-ink
To create the necklace – the rich and complex lynchpin of the whole collection – the French savoir-faire of Akillis studios adopted cutting-edge feats of engineering. Its curves and swirls come and go, like a wave alternating between frozen crest and sudden crash, plunging from the base of the neck to the shoulders. Other parts dwindle to thin wires.
Akillis marries white and black gold forged using traditional techniques. And since Caroline Gaspard loves the unexpected, she electrifies this piece with black diamonds. These high-quality gems are tailored in a painstaking process – the mark of true luxury – with each of the 71 jewels fashioned in unique triangular forms to create stunningly precise mirrored surfaces. The necklace appears to levitate.
