Nadine Ghosn‘s whimsical designs have graced the wrists of Lil Yachty and the neck of Drake. Though she works with the highest quality materials on the market and serves a clientele of big names, her pieces derive from a sense of play and elementary inspiration. Her goal? Make ordinary products extraordinary.
For Lil Yachty’s wrist candy, Ghosn created Crayola crayons of 18K gold and precious stones. As for Drake, Ghosn made the rapper an iconic chain of dog bones, composed of 18K gold, 50 carats of white diamonds and 6 carats of pink diamonds. In his “First Person Shooter” music video, he wore a custom dog leash made of — you guessed it — 2 kilos of 18K white gold and 50 carats of diamonds.
Trick of the Eye
Ghosn’s designs harken back to the found object art movement in the early 20th century, though of course trompe l’oeil designs have existed since time immemorial. Much of the work she is doing feels like a commercialized version of Dadaism, pardoning the contradiction. Perhaps if he could have, Duchamp would have produced little “Fontaine” urinal earrings. Similarly to his works, her collections all have a theme of the mundane: school, burgers, blocks, and cutlery. The irony lies in the luxury material: Lego blocks cut from jade. It’s like cutting a ring pop from an actual gem and setting it in 18K gold.
The bike chain bracelets and necklaces call back to untangling a detached bike chain. The Paper Clip Necklace is much like the ones you’d made while bored in class and the Clip Earring is the something you might mischievously clip to a friend sitting in front of you.
Even the humble Spoon Ring gets an upgrade from its 17th century lore. People say that servants stole silver spoons, bent them, and gave them as rings to their betrothed. Some servants even got arrested for stealing the spoons, as they often had the house insignias on them. Ghosn’s version, made of 18K gold and accented with diamonds, would certainly land you a charge if you pilfered it.
Coloring Outside of the Lines
Ghosn describes her process and her work as beyond “outside the box” and says: “there is no box.” Her pieces encourage the wearer to rewrite – with her famed $22,680.00 pencil bracelet – their own stories and taps into nostalgic items in an attempt to access a child’s unrestrained creative energy.
Since the dreamy resurgence of house Schiaparelli and Loewe’s more surreal collections, fashion consumers have been looking to wear playful iterations on real life objects.
Luckily Ghosn has been developing this particular set of tastes and skills since 2015. She struck a deal to learn from a jeweler in Lebanon, after hearing that many in the industry were leaving for lack of opportunity. It helped that she had a degree in Economics and Art from Stanford and experience with Hermès during a Management Retail Program. Ghosn took an all-or-nothing approach and launched in 2016. In 2017, she won the Innovation Award for her Veggie Burger ring at Couture, a luxury jewelry trade show.
In 2018, McDonald’s came knocking and offered for her to take part in a love letter to Big Macs. Together, they gave away a one-of-a-kind bejeweled “Bling Mac” ring. From there, she’s taken part in other brand collaborations from brands like Sambas and Beats. Her growth is still one she is determined to keep organic and sustainable, despite barely being in business for a decade and being so in demand. It seems Ghosn is in a league of her own.
