For me, one of the standout shows at this year’s Munich Jewelry Week was Goodness, a collaboration between jewelers from Aotearoa New Zealand and students from the Deutsche Meisterschule für Mode, the city’s school for fashion design.
Twenty-six pieces of jewelry were displayed on a collection of capes hand made from natural calico by a group of first-year students. Their designs were beautifully made, and inventive. Cape-making is a task routinely given each year to students at the start of their course.
The jewelers represented at Goodness were a mix of emerging and established makers. The pieces themselves represent a selection of work created over the past 20 years. As the organizers point out in their exhibition notes: “The ideas and materials of each piece differ greatly, yet they share cultural similarities.
“Both the garment and the jewelry seek each other, striving to find the ideal connection, the elusive magic that makes them extraordinary.”
The idea of this joint creative venture came to the exhibition’s organizer, Karl Fritsch, on a visit to the school in 2024. He thought it would be an interesting way to display the jewelry pieces from Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand). The German-born jeweler has been based in New Zealand since 2009 and organized this show in collaboration with Lisa Walker, Peter Deckers, and M101, an arts organization that advocates for, organizes, and provides creative opportunities for the Aotearoa jewelry sector.
The capes with their jewelry were displayed on dressmakers’ mannequins, which were spaced out in a school hall in central Munich. The act of walking around these stationary models was very powerful. Seeing the jewelry on a figure against a dramatic yet neutral piece of clothing added an extra dimension to the experience.
The jewelers: Fran Allison, Vanessa Arthur, Vernon Bowden, Becky Bliss, Chris Charteris, Nadene Carr, Peter Deckers, Jane Dodd, Nina van Duijnhoven, Sharon Fitness, Jack Hadley, Kelly McDonald, Craig McIntosh, Neke Moa, Brenden Monson, Shelly Norton, Rowan Panther, Alan Preston, Rohan Wealleans, Joe Sheehan, Moniek Schrijer, Mia Straka, Caroline Thomas, Raewyn Walsh, Sarah Walker-Holt, Lisa Walker, and Grace Yu-Piper.
The students: Berk Baslitürk, Johanna Brand, Amélie Dohnert, Luisa Eber, Hannah Faust, Samuel Garcia Pérez, Eva Göbel, Joshua Guereca, Frido Hamel, Pola Hörauf, Valentina Jarczyk, Nora Kolbe, Aaron Luft, Emily Mann, Prosper Mbengi, Ferdinand Oberländer, Alexander Obradovic, Alexander Pietsch, Lucia Plur de la Rosa, Martin Renzikowski, Stella Schütz, Tanya Sinitsyna, Isabel Snebli, Paul Sperling, Simeon Steiner, and Annika Walter.
Click on the photos to learn about what they show.
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