Jewelry Designer Ana Khouri Designed the Inaugural Trophy for Fashion Trust U.S.
It seemed only appropriate that jewelry designer Ana Khouri would be the one creating the inaugural trophy for the Fashion Trust U.S.’s young designer awards in Los Angeles.
The designer and sculptor focuses on one-of-a-kind jewelry incorporating sustainability and social responsibility by using Fairmined Gold, traceable and extracted with best-mining practices. She also works with ethically and responsibly sourced gemstones. These are all the hallmarks of fashion’s future. Supporting artisan and small-scale mining communities is part of the FTUS’s mission of supporting and nurturing young talent who embrace sustainability.
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“It was important for us to have a trophy that celebrates creativity and reflects our ethos,” said Fashion Trust U.S. cofounder Tania Fares.
The trophy is a sleek, undulating screen coated with Fairmined Gold. The gold finish represents the designer’s journey that involves hours of labor and production while navigating the road bumps to reaching one’s goals.
“The trophy is made of steel and resembles my sculptural work,” said Khouri, a native of Brazil now based in New York. “For this trophy, I chose a perforated steel to communicate permeability and creativity, as well as the connected nature of design to the natural world.”
Khouri, who has a degree in fine arts from the Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado in São Paulo, said she felt it was vital to bring awareness to ethically and sustainably sourced materials when creating the trophy. “I feel it is important for people to understand that responsible and labeled practices exist and know what it stands for,” she explained in an email.
This is the second time that Khouri has been asked to design a trophy. After she won the ANDAM Award in France for jewelry design, she was commissioned to work on a trophy that incorporated a geometric crystal piece to honor young designers. “Designing an award presents the challenges of functionality,” the artist said. “The bigger challenge is for me is to connect with the organization and believe in their work. If that is the case, the work flows.”
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