seaofshoes

My little sister turned fifteen today…happy birthday Carol! Here are some of my favorite pictures of her.

 

I am so excited to finally do this post-it's a been long time in the making.

Recently my mother stumbled upon Paris-based jewelry designer Hanna Bernhard. For us it was love at first sight. We were immediately compelled by the scale and depth of their creations.  In fact we didn't realize exactly how large some of her pieces were until the day they arrived at our doorstep. 'Hanna Bernhard' is actually a husband and wife team based in Paris, and they have been creating jewelry for more that twenty years. Needless to say all of the Hanna Bernhard creations are a work of art on their own. Each piece comes with its own hand-crafted stand. We have ours on display in the dining room.

There is an obsessive, frenzied quality to their work that makes me wonder about the psychology that went into its creation. What goes on in the mind of 'Hanna Bernhard'? Lucky for us, they obliged when my mom hit them up for a quick interview.

First, the pictures…here are the Hanna Bernhard pieces we have acquired thus far.

 

Here is the squid.

The squid is over a foot long.

Wearing the squid with a Jelly Garcia dress I bought in Tokyo, sequin tube top from Mango, and Gucci wooden platforms.

The squid was telling me dirty jokes.

 

Here is the shrimp. 

I'm wearing the shrimp with a Moschino saftey pin jacket, Urban Outfitters shirt, Citizens of Humanity jeans, and Prada studded booties.

 

And here is the octopus!

This Chanel faux fur jacket from the 1994 Fall collection was MADE to be worn with megasized octopi. I love them together!

 

You have already met the antelope…

And you will soon be introduced to the baboon in an upcoming post!

Here is the interview with one half of Hanna Bernhard. 

When did you and your husband start designing Hanna Bernhard? 

I had started to design jewelry before meeting my husband Fernand. This was over 20 years ago. When we met he had just finished his dental prothese studies. We combined both of our skills-my love of colors and his aptitude at sculpting-and have naturally started to make jewelry together. 

Where does the name Hanna come from?

Hanna is my hebraic name.  

What do you look for for inspiration? 

Mostly nature, but we are also influenced by our love for Art Deco and Art Nouveau. We are both in love with Lalique jewelry. 

You seem to feature animals so often–why animals? 

My father was a Natural Sciences teacher, I have always been surrounded by gems and fossils -which he was collecting-, skulls of animals, books, etc. We have a countryside house, I used to go there every week end when I was young. My dad and I loved to hunt for butterflies, insects, and fossils.
Fernand has spent most of his childhood in Corsica, he was living by the sea and diving to watch sea life was his favorite activity. He was very romantic and spent days alone in the nature, observing plants, flowers and insects. 

Do you have any exciting projects or collaborations for the future that you would like us to know about?

We do have projects, including with a world known couture house; we are not superstitious but it is probably better to talk about them because the project is not concrete. 

6) Do you have a favorite peice?  If so, why is it your favorite?  
 Fernand is afraid of snakes, but paradoxically it is what he likes to make the best; may be a way to tame this animal..
He loves any sea creature, also insects and monkeys -he would may be say 'not true', but he is always talking about making more monkeys ! 

I have several favorite pieces: 2 peacock pins, male and female (you can see them on our site). I really love the colors, in shades of turquoise blue.
I had kept 2 pieces at home, a huge ostrich pin and a huge parrot pin, but I have finally sold them after several years. I sold the last one to Iris Apfel.

Thank you so much to Natalie for doing this interview, and thank you so much for your beautiful jewelry!

P.S. On February 25th at V.O.D. boutique in Dallas, my mother and I will be hosting a trunk show with great statement jewelry from the 70's and 80's. We are bringing all of our Hanna Bernhard collection and will have a few pieces for sale. If you're around, please come!

On Saturday morning I made a trip into Dallas with my mom and my sister to Again & Again, our favorite consignment store here in Dallas. I've posted one of our trips to Again & Again before-Leslie Pritchard has an amazing eye! 

We fell in love with a lot…

 

My mom ended up getting these chairs. We're changing the look of our house right now, these will be great.

Last time I was in the store, Leslie told me how much she loved my Chanel ponyhair herringbone boots. So I wore them for her ;)

Worn with a Zara lamb fur vest, silk mens shirt, Urban Outfitters lace trimmed shorts, J. Crew bracelet and F21 tights.

 

Afterwards we hit up Northpark. 

It was time for me to buy a pair of flats. I don't really own any flats. I have three pairs of beautiful oxfords (a pair of sivler Yohji brogues, a pair of Dries van Noten faux croc metallic oxfords, and a pair of my mom's Salvatore Ferragamo brogues from the 80s that are falling apart) They are all very delicate so I don't wear them very often. I have one pair of Marni flats that I bought on sale years ago, but they aren't very practical either.

I fell in love with these Givenchy ballet flats though-what a beautiful color!

 

 

TTYS-thank you for all of your interesting arapaima emails!

If you're interested in checking out the Again & Again stores-here are both of their locations and info!

I wanted to post some pictures of my favorite fish-I love all kinds of underwater life. That's why I called this blog Sea of Shoes. I'm obsessed with arapaimas. It is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world…the largest one ever reported was 14.8 ft long. They seem very powerful and mysterious. And so prehistoric.

 

 

Arapaimas appear in my dreams a lot. Wouldn't it be cool to have a crazy piece of jewelry featuring the arapaima?

If you're a regular reader of Sea of Shoes…you may have noticed my penchant for animal jewelry. Animal jewelry is my obsession. The more obscure the species, the better. Everyone does owl jewelry and sparrow motifs…but antelopes, squids, monkeys, and sea monsters are a little harder to come by. Our jewelry cabinet is a very exotic zoo. 

My mom gets all the credit for finding the good stuff-she's an expert animal jewelry hunter.

 

My antelope friend is worn on a vintage cropped fur jacket, a vintage Yves Saint Laurent green velvet wrap skirt, Ray Ban glasses, Rugby Ralph Lauren Argyle socks, and my Proenza Schouler lace-up booties. 

This piece of jewelry is a big feature in the works-expect to see it posted soon. I cannot wait to share more!!

Animal jewelry outfit #2….the fox and the horses.

Vintage double horse head necklace and Christopher Ross fox belt buckle worn with a Marni skirt, random silk mens shirt, and Martin Margiela cut-out sandals.

Oh….I have some big news guys!

Check out the H. Chalayan boots my mom has just obtained….stopped your heart, didn't they? I have to borrow these soon! We are huge fans of Hussein Chalayan….here is a Hussein Chalayan 90's retrospective post I did a few months back.

Have a great week!

xo Jane

There are a lot of pictures I take that I don't end up using on my blog…here are some leftovers from the past year.

 

Click to see more…

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It was such an honor to be written up in the January Teen Vogue by Jane Keltner-thank you so much!

I have been super excited to announce the collaboration my mom and I did with Gryphon-what an honor to work with Aimee. My mom and I love Gryphon. Thank you so much for this opportunity Aimee!

 

It was thrilling to see our sketch come to life, and my mom and I both love the way it came out. How killer are the bell sleeves? Totally captures the post-apocalyptic aviatrix vibe my mom and I were aiming for. 

The trench coat is due in stores at the end of the month-thank you again Aimee for this opportunity and thank you to Vogue for such an amazing write-up!

xo Jane

UPDATE: heres some info on where the trench coat is going to be available!

-$875 is the suggested retail

-Fabric is water-repellant cotton metal (the metal is what holds the texture

of the fabric)

-pouch is detachable from belt

STORES

Quartier 206 in Germany  www.quartier206.com

Elements in Texas www.elementsclothing.com

D & Me in London www.onedandme.com

Shopbop www.shopbop.com

C02 in Nice, France tel: 0952880054

Harvey Nichols in Turkey www.harveynichols.com.tr

Consortium in Oklahoma (they're a new store that's just opening, so no

website yet, but their number is 405.620.6607)

Kiito in Japan www.kiito.com

 

 

 

 

I've been wearing this vintage band jacket all week-a recent eBay find. Worn with silver Superfine jeans I recently cut into shorts, a pink silk scarf, and Proenza Schouler lace up ankle boots,'