Bridging the gap between art and fashion, their sumptuous fantasy designs reflect the balance between the beautiful and the dark, the past and the future, resulting in sculptural art jewellery that is heavily influenced by theatre and fantasy. Yunus & Eliza  create signature sculptural collections, that are both mythological and futuristic; where fragmented remains metamorphose into graceful hybrid beings.

‘Beyond the Darkness’ Spring/Summer 2011

Artist, Yunus Ascott and sculptor Eliza Higginbottom met in 2007, whilst casting precious metals in one of the last surviving specialist foundries in London. It was from there that they started collaborating and launched Yunus & Eliza in early 2009. I was delighted to meet Yunus & Eliza at London Fashion Week and experience their bespoke sculptural creations in person.

Juliet: Yunus and Eliza, what made you decide to showcase your work at London Fashion Week?
Y&E: Winning the BFC/ELLE Talent Launch Pad. Part of the support from the award is showing at Fashion Week.

Juliet: How would you describe the symbiosis between fashion and jewellery?
Y&E: It is an intimate, but not totally dependent relationship, as the two often stand strong on their own. However the mix can be a mutually beneficial one, and the great thing about the merging of these boundaries is that it provides a platform for avant-garde and couture jewellery: jewellery that belongs on the catwalk.

Child Prodigy Ring

Juliet: Would you be influenced by the demands of a fashion week schedule and the need to create seasonal collections?
Y&E: Up to a certain point, yes. The discipline of working to those deadlines can be useful. But it won’t dictate our creativity; signature pieces will reappear, and the collections will have a natural evolution; we’re not going to change our style dramatically just for effect or to fit a trend.

Juliet: Your work has great drama and poetry; who would you like to see wearing your pieces?
Y&E: Anyone who gets it. It was incredible being at LFW to have such an immediate response from people. Sometimes, locked away in our studio, we forget that we are creating for other people, as all our pieces have so much of ourselves bound into them, so to hear and see people truly enjoying it is intense, and great.

’Go With The Flow’ pendant

Juliet: You refer to yourselves as Artist Jewellers, can you expand on that concept?
Y&E: The above answer begins to address this in a way. Each piece we make is a work of art. It is finely crafted, intricately woven with detail, and born through experimentation, fun, accident, whim, struggle and deep thought – the same processes as when we are creating larger paintings or sculptures. So in this sense we are artists first, and jewellery is our medium. We are afforded a certain freedom by being neither fine jewellers nor fashion designers, as we are unrestricted by those boundaries.

Juliet: I was fascinated by the sculptural quality of your work; tell us about your background and how that influences your jewellery.
Y&E :Yes, we weren’t trained as jewellers, and have come to it sort of sideways. We were both raised in creative families. Yunus comes from a long line of Turkish opera singers and actors, and Eliza’s family is also deeply steeped in music. Theatres, museums, exhibitions, stories, architecture and the outdoors featured heavily in our upbringings, and our jewellery is constantly reflecting this. Yunus went to a Steiner school where nurturing and inspiring the individual’s creativity was central. He studied Fine Art and Illustration before undertaking a Master Apprenticeship at a specialist foundry, casting and restoring large bronzes. Eliza did a degree in History, and worked in costume design and theatre, before studying Figurative Sculpture at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London. The sculptural quality of our work comes directly from these experiences, and our jewellery sits alongside other sculptural projects and commissions.

Juliet: What can we expect from Yunus and Eliza in the years to come?
Y&E:  Big things!

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