When you enter the small door of jewelry designer Sophie Buhai’s (Los Angeles, 42-year-old) studio, the first thing you notice is the light. Filtered through an olive tree in front of the main window, Angelina’s luminosity plays with the very long, light, ecru curtains, with the few and selected objects; with the movements of the staff walking up and down the four floors of the building and with the jewelry of the Creator. Even with the calm tone of Buhai himself. Nobody would claim that this narrow house in Silver Lake, one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Los Angeles, central and green, hides the studio of one of the ideologues of today’s jewelry. Sophie Buhai graduated from New York’s Parsons in 2003 and three years later founded the fashion brand Vena Cava with her partner Lisa Mayock. His adventure in textiles ended in 2013 and he says he has no intention of returning. Two years later, silver jewelry came into his life and today Buhai has conquered his own space that he doesn’t want to leave.
The designer says that silver has always been present in her life. That her grandmother and her “eccentric aunts” taught her that style goes beyond diamonds, expensive materials and even fashion: When she started out almost a decade ago, they wore tiny gold pendants, but she chose silver, large and with sturdy shapes . She was right, and clients like Michelle Obama, Jennifer Lopez and Nicole Kidman confirm this. “Designing with silver is a statement of intent,” he says. It is his fetish material, although he has also been using gold, semi-precious stones and pearls for several seasons. Buhai designs earrings, geometric bracelets or delicate necklaces. Also for men. And objects too: flasks, lighters, combs as if inherited from an elegant 1930s grandmother, cigarette holders, shell-shaped pill boxes, butter knives and even toothpicks. “Turning these objects into sculptures gives them a sense of humor,” he says.
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There is also a certain sculptural vocation in his new studio, which is located in a building built in 1986 between postmodernism and “Spanish style”. “We wanted something Bauhaus-like, close to modern architecture, but not so much from the twenties and thirties, so literally.” After the acquisition, they spent a few months cleaning, painting, removing the old carpet and ” “The structure was left in the bones so that the essential was visible,” he says. The objects influence this clarity of ideas: a display cabinet from the mid-20th century, an Italian semi-circular sofa in olive green from the 1930s, an engraving on the Stone fireplace, a reclining table covered with a rug found in a Paris market. Resting on it is a black vase and a low table made of thick glass, designed by her friend Gabriela Rosales, owner of the Formative Modern gallery in Los Angeles. “We designed the ground floor together, it was their first interior design project. I wanted it to have a close connection to my pieces and to be very 20th century. “I liked the idea of working with a local company and a woman,” says the Admirer of “incredible women like Tina Chow, Elsa Peretti or the Swede Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe.”
The same philosophy permeates their business: small (there are only eight people), local (their pieces are designed in Silver Lake and take shape first in wax and then in silver in workshops of local artisans in town, with a prestigious piece of jewelry). district) and commanded by a woman. And with a majority-female team that was joined four years ago by her husband Josh Sussman, a former criminal defense attorney who now leads the company. The couple married in 2014 and have two children. “My daughter says she loves jewelry and wants to be a designer,” says Sophie, “but the boy isn’t interested,” she laughs.
It was Sussman who, after months of searching, found what Californians call this Spanish-style bungalow. “The brand was initially a kind of project in the basement of the house,” says Buhai. “I come from here. I love this city. I have been working at home, in an adjacent area, for eight years. Josh started looking, he was very lively because we didn’t have much budget. We wanted to be in this area because we live nearby and we wanted a place that wasn’t too corporate. [risas]“. Nothing gray, with plastic and computers? “Nothing, nothing like that,” he laughs again. Space was hard to find. The renovation was small and they had one advantage: electricity. With large windows in the front and back rooms, the room is flooded with light. “The light is incredible,” Sophie often repeats in the talk. “The good thing about Los Angeles is the light and the space.”
The place is somewhere between Mediterranean, Parisian – the creator travels to France three times a year to visit buyers and tour museums – and pure Los Angeles: “It’s a mix of European style, Art Deco, pieces from a few designers, bespoke… “Made pieces, old pieces, objects that we make… jewelry is also decoration.” A mixture, like herself, like her work. “I don’t really know what I am, I don’t have a label,” he reflects. “I guess… I guess… I’m a designer.” Without further ado. But she doesn’t want to make clothes like so many other designers. This stage was far away. He likes to do things, many, different, not always similar, but not in common. “I hadn’t thought about it, but yes, jewelry is an intersection of many things. It’s very personal, they are talismans, they accompany you when you use them and wear them.”
Their end customers are also mostly women. “They are intellectual and sophisticated, but not at all pretentious,” is how he defines them. “From small-town college professors to doctors to lawyers to Park Avenue ladies; from very old women to university students who give each other a piece after graduating. I think it’s interesting. She herself raises the question of prices. Their most basic earrings start at $250; Most of their wearable pieces cost between 600 and 900, but it can go up to 2,000. “There are pieces that are priced higher, but others, like a pair of earrings, that are at a lower price because I know there are customers who will save for a year for them but can still afford them.” It It’s good to have a price range, that’s important to me. I think that fine jewelry is sometimes very exclusive, so I have always admired designers who managed to create at normal prices.”
Buhai seeks a balance between normal prices and handmade, artisanal and creative pieces that last. He draws them one by one and carves them in wax before turning them into silver. “And with the wax we adjust it, adding more and less, removing it here and adding it there. It’s not easy to always be involved in the entire process. In my team there is one person who is responsible for the final development. It is done with great care, I have to work on each piece personally, there is no design team here,” he says. “We develop a lot of pieces and I would like to create more categories, but we want to control the quality.” Categories? “I want to make lamps and chairs and tables and worktops,” his eyes light up, “I would also have to look for good partners.” They are pieces for life and quality is important. And also sustainability.”
Buhai’s studio is on the top floor of the building. There, he designs combs, forks and pre-Columbian jewelry among books by Man Ray, Picasso and Fortuny stacked on the floor, with boards full of sketches and photos that inspire him. For decoration, a silver vase on the fireplace and a Pascal Mourgue chair in a corner. Buhai dreams of both lamps and making clocks. And so that his pieces last a long time. This is how he sees his future: traveling to Vienna or Paris, visiting museums, spending hours in libraries. And work quietly, in the light that shines through the olive tree in front of the door.
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