We pride ourselves on finding the best independent designers around the world in order to bring you unique fashion finds you won’t find anywhere else. But of these original pieces, there’s another select group: the exclusives. From bags made with original textiles to hand-hammered bracelets, click here to discover pieces exclusive to Boticca and learn more about our talented designers.
For some designers, making jewelry is about creating something beautiful from scratch. But for others, it is all about the hunt for buried treasure. From markets to car boot sales to small villages around the world, our designers have honed their hunting skills, and can spot something extraordinary in a pile of junk. Find out how our designers discover the treasures that make their jewelry special.
Boticca’s PR genius Josi and marketing guru Sophia are hard at work building new furniture for our office. You might not think you need to accessorize when you’re building furniture, but we don’t think there’s ever a bad time to wear unique jewelry! Check out Sophia’s gorgeous Jolita necklace, which keeps her looking glamorous even as she contemplates assembling a new set of shelves. Sophia’s necklace is a bespoke piece, so there is truly nothing else like it. Check out the rest of Jolita’s collection here.
See, jewelry from Boticca really is appropriate for any occasion!
Handpicked by Sophia
This necklace is perfect for this time of year – high octane glamour & unique at once. Guaranteed to make people stop you in the street and ask where it’s from.
It’s a perennial problem at this time of year, you want to show your loved ones just how much you care but how do you do it? What do you get that both shows how you feel and has an extra special meaning to it? Luckily Boticca are here to help with our extra special gifts. Not just beautiful and unique, these gifts have something extra, something special behind them. So, whether based on stories from the designers beloved grandmother or inspired by a dream, we show you our gifts that mean just that little bit more.
With this week heralding our very first birthday, we thought we would give you, our loyal friends, a peek inside the style of the brains behind Boticca. With Kiyan’s smart urban chic men’s style and Avid’s classic with a twist influence, this week’s guest curation comes from the heart of Boticca.
Here at Boticca HQ you can always tell when Algis from Jolita adds new pieces to his highly successful collection, as the team gaze and gasp at the images on their screens. One of Boticca’s most inventive and certainly unique designers, Algis follows his heart and creative eye when it comes to design. Based just around the corner from our offices, we caught up with this popular designer to find out why his career is literally the stuff of dreams.
I was born in Lithuania, my dad was Lithuanian and my mother is Russian. I moved to London about fourteen years ago and have been living here ever since.
A few years ago I had a recurring dream for over a week- it was a static image of a bracelet. I don’t remember dreaming of anything else – just this particular piece of jewelry. After a week I asked my friend – who had some experience in jewelry making – to take me to a bead shop. From that moment I was hooked…
I am mainly self-taught, however I attended a few classes – I did a short course in bio-resin jewelry in Cockpit Art Studios in London. I also attended two courses in silversmithing, as I wanted to learn how to work with metals – especially silver. I was also really scared of a blowtorch. Everything else I have taught myself by reading and lots of experimenting.
I do not draw, so I rely a great deal on experimenting. When I start working on a piece I don’t really know how it will end up looking. It usually takes me more than a day to complete a piece of jewelry. Sometimes it could be as long as a couple of months from the conception of an idea until I have a finished piece of jewelry. I feel this way it works best for me.
Laughing Buddha Bangle
Collage Necklace and Cannes Necklace
Everywhere really: museums, books, cinema, and dreams. I like incorporating unusual items in my jewelry, so I am always on the look out for something a bit strange or things that others tend to overlook.
It is actually my sister’s name, which is an old Lithuanian name.
Eclectic, colorful and bold.
Jolita Jewellery
Without a doubt Iris Apfel. Her sense of color and eye for the unusual are outstanding!
Iris Apfel portrait by Bruce Weber
Metamorphosis means to change into something else, to assume a new, different form.
I suppose I chose it as it describes an entire collection succinctly – I take old, unwanted, clashing things and turn them into something new…
Urbi et Orbi literally means to the city and to the world. When a young man came to Rome for the first time, he was greeted by a Roman with a saying “Urbi et Orbi” which meant welcome to Rome and to the World as in those days Rome was one of the greatest cities in the world.
So for me London was my “Rome” – I came to London, which opened the gates to world.
I do quite a bit of shopping on-line – I buy products from India, Bali, Peru etc. I also visit various antiques and flee markets around London. I also have friends who buy things for me when they see something unusual if they are travelling overseas.
Jolita helps me with marketing, promotion etc. She is more organized than me, so we are utilizing that! She is also constantly nicking my jewelry…
Everything and nothing
Thinking what I am going to make next. I also run jewelry making classes.
I like Arnoldo][Battois, Selda Okutan and Helen Ruth.
Boticca are great at nurturing and helping new designers like myself. Also, with the help of Boticca I am, able to reach a global audience that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve otherwise.
It’s a wonderful time to be in London right now. Not only have Londoners got the 2012 Olympics to look forward to but at the end of the week, Fashion Week comes to town. Once again the area around Somerset House gets transformed into a veritable fashion frenzy as designers, stylists and models all descend on the otherwise quiet corner of West London.
So while we all know to expect looks from industry big hitters such as Preen, Julien Macdonald and Burberry, Boticca is more interested in the secret London style. Being on a permanent mission to unearth unique, interesting and emerging artists, this week Boticca looks beyond what we all know about London and celebrates Boticca’s finest London based up and comers.
Alan Hayden’s story began one afternoon on Oxford Street. Searching for a carry on bag for a business bag, he was unable to find anything chic and stylish so set about making one for himself. With his love for personalization and intricate design, Alan’s bags and wallets, in skins ranging from leather to pony skin, are 100% personalized with silver and even diamonds.
Making sure that you only have the most cutting edge pieces, the Sarah Angold Studio is a design collective with experience in ten different design sectors. Working on varied projects ranging from designing concept cars for Toyota to working on the window displays for Selfridges, experimenting with materials and technology is at the heart of their design ethos.
One of Boticca’s most loved designers, Algis from Jolita began making jewelry over two years ago after having the same dream about making bracelets for over a week. A mainly self taught designer, Jolita’s costume jewelry is bold, eclectic and certainly one-of-a-kind.
A recent graduate from Central Saint Martins College, Alex Suh‘s scarf designs are sophisticated, highly artistic and vivid. Using a mixture of classical paintings with digital prints her designs are eye-catching, timeless and above all, beautiful.
Like many women Anne Agoren’s Achilles heel is handbags. Unlike most women Anne Agoren turned this passion into a thriving business with her label, izzi bag, proving to be an instant hit on Boticca. Handcrafted in Europe using the finest leathers and accessories available, each piece is unique, eclectic and above all beautiful.
Having trained with industry giants such as Cartier and Boodles, Aiyna set up her eponymous jewelry line in 2009. Her pieces, made with precious gems are striking, thought provoking and above all luxurious.
If the King of Pop Michael Jackson were alive today there is no doubt that World of Christina would be on his speed dial. Asked to sum up her style, Christina describes it as ‘funky and experimetal with a considerable emphasis on fabric decoration and print design.’ With studded, printed and adorned gloves, scarves and handkerchiefs, Christina’s designs bring any outfit to life in a flash.
For more from our fantastic designers, take a look here.
