Sophie Bille Brahe Toasts 10 Years With New Capsules, Categories
LONDON — Over the last decade, Danish jeweler Sophie Bille Brahe has quietly carved a niche in the fine jewelry sector, focusing on traditional craft, slow design and romantic references aplenty.
“When I started I was only doing the ‘croissant de lune’ earrings for a year,” said the designer of her now-signature crescent-shaped diamond earrings. “Everyone told me I’d be better off doing cheaper pieces, but I never concentrated on others’ opinions. I wanted to create what works for me.”
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Work, it did: Her label has amassed a global network of retail partners that includes Net-a-porter, Matchesfashion, Ssense, Browns, Bergdorf Goodman and many more. In 2020, sales were up by 27 percent.
She is now entering a new decade in business with even more confidence in her vision. She is getting ready to move to a bigger design studio in her hometown of Copenhagen and has developed an appetite for experimenting with bigger stones, as well as new categories.
This week, Bille Brahe will release an anniversary capsule range with Dover Street Market featuring 10 limited-edition classic styles, from tennis necklaces to diamond rings — all with the Bille Brahe signature of graduating stones and curved lines.
Courtesy of Sophie Bille Brahe
The pieces also showcase some of the biggest diamonds that Bille Brahe has used, from the 2-karat stone on the designer’s signature twisted ring to a more romantic heart-shaped style with a 1-karat stone, or a tennis necklace made using diamonds weighing a total of 12 karats.
Prices will range between 28,750 and 92,000 pounds.
“I wanted to return to some of my favorite pieces throughout the year and reimagine them with bigger stones. It’s a big milestone for me, it’s not something you can just do. But after ten years it made more sense — it’s such a treat to see things evolve to a point where designing a 2-karat ring is now possible,” said Bille Brahe, adding that she has been on the lookout for the right stone for a while. Once she found it, she tried to add her handwriting to it while keeping it “as clean and pure as possible.”
Bille Brahe is also readying the launch of her first kid’s jewelry collection with Ssense. It’s dubbed Ma Chérie and features a range of pearl pieces — a material that she felt needed an injection of modernity.
“I always loved pearls, but I never wanted to wear them. They have the same magic quality as being pregnant because you’ve got this oyster and then all of a sudden you end up with a pearl without even realizing it,” said the designer, who is a mother of two and has always enjoyed putting pearl necklaces on her children.
Courtesy of Sophie Bille Brahe
As well as children’s jewelry, Bille Brahe will start to introduce design objects to her offer, ranging from vases to coffee tables.
The idea was to bring her many sketches to life, and make the bespoke furniture that she’d been creating for her own studio more accessible. She also wants to stoke her own creative fires.
“The worst thing is to be bored, and when I started this company, I told myself that I could do whatever I wanted to do, as long as I knew why I was doing it and had a compelling personal reason. I don’t want others to decide for me or subscribe to rules that ‘because I do fine jewelry, I can’t do this or that,'” the designer said.
“We’ve been doing this for 10 years now, so there’s the space to create more, people know what I’m doing and now I can work on other things I’m interested in. It means you’re also so much more fulfilled when you go back to design a piece of jewelry.”
Courtesy of Sophie Bille Brahe
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