Little Glass Clementine featured in London Fashion Week’s Esthetica initiative in association with Monsoon which aims to promote up-and-coming designers committed to eco sustainability. Little Glass Clementine was one of 37 designers featured for adhering to Esthetica’s principles of fair trade and ethical practices, organic and recycled materials and design excellence. Having featured in The Sunday Times’ Style magazine’s ‘Hot List’ for 2010 and having showcased her designs at London Fashion Week 2010’s sustainable show Esthetica, Clementine James, designer behind Little Glass Clementine, is fast becoming one of the most talked-about jewellery designers of the year. With a background in anthropology and environmentalism and a self-professed fascination with human adorning and recycling, her jewellery is a “narrative of collected treasure, discarded objects and precious gems.” She hopes that her pieces of art, each with their own treasures and laden with memories, will re-tell a story by re-using trinkets and objects. With personal involvement from her clients, who add their own belongings, her necklaces and hair pieces are individual and incredibly special.
James is a self-taught jeweller, having made earrings to sell at Portobello and Camden markets since the age of sixteen. She now makes her pieces from where she lives; a boat in Hackney. She strongly believes that memories, and the everyday objects which trigger those memories, are the most precious and valuable things; it is often the tales behind the trinkets which are of most worth.
Like a photo album in the form of sculptured art, her necklaces boast a narrative of memories, tales and discoveries: beads from a dressing-up box or a button from a grandmother lie side by side with pebbles and shells from a holiday, torn-up postcards, vintage lace and gems.
For Spring/Summer, James is inspired by circuses, fairgrounds and poetry and describes her ideal client as “Someone with imagination, creativity and a subtle decadence! They have an interest in re-using existing materials in unusual ways. They are proud to wear an item that is art as well as environmentally sustainable.” James hopes to prove through her jewellery that fashion does not need be a commodity we feel guilty about, as our lifestyles adapt to our changing environment, but one we feel proud of.
