Karla Mertens
Karla Mertens
Karla Mertens
Karla Mertens grew up among the stones and jewels in her parents’ jewellery store. She went to Antwerp to follow ahigher education as a Jewellery Designer and Goldsmith in the Sint-Lukas Pavilion. (Karel de Grote Hogeschool). In 1996 she started her own unique business with a workshop atelier in the heart of Leuven. She had already developeda broad interest in stones, architecture, alternative healing and mysticism, but in the beginning her focus was mainly on aesthetic classic and design jewellery.
Gradually, she follows her passions and finds the unquenchable courage to walk her own path. Inspired by her long journeys and the special people she meets / encounters along the way, she immerses herself over the years in the wonderful world of crystals and energetic healing such as Reiki. She follows additional courses on the power of gemstones, sacred geometry and symbols. Apart from this, she continues to receive technical training, which means that multiple techniques shape her designs.
The cumulative effort of all this has made Karla Mertens into the jewellery designer she is today. Pure and inspiring. Her intuition is her greatest strength. Nature, sacred symbols & geometry, many derived from ancient cultures and traditions, remain her biggest inspiration. From her own workshop, she makes her pieces by hand. She combines elegant design with the powerful energies of the stones- and metals. How Karla Mertens works, is to connect the scientific, creative and energetic, sacred worlds; and to divert them into one.
Amerikalaan 15 Leuven 3000 Belgium
Rough and refined at the same time, Kim Mee Hye designs a high-end jewellery line, which celebrates intimacy and hidden luxury, as well as a strong sense of freedom. Handcrafted in the finest ateliers in Belgium, the line appeals to independent and liberated minds, at ease within any environment.
Kim Mee Hye creates the jewellery pieces she always dreamed of wearing herself, following her own path and aesthetics. Removed from a vision of jewels as mere status symbols, Kim Mee Hye focuses on honesty, individuality and eclecticism, going back to striking shapes and powerful statements.
Made to be transformed by every woman and worn to fit the mood of the moment, the pieces are timeless and delicate, combining quality with innovative design. The collection only uses the most exquisite materials such as gold and diamonds, yet it still manages to be playful and surprising at the same time, highlighting the melodic nature of unexpected pairings.
By integrating extraordinary sophisticated and invisible mechanisms into her pieces, Kim Mee Hye creates jewellery that includes more than one single message. The variable geometry shapes can either be worn casually or in more sophisticated ways. Kim Mee Hye create pieces with hidden messages, implying they can be shown or simply not.
Chaussée d’Alsemberg 600 Brussels 1180 Belgium
Kristof Buntinx
Kristof BuntinxBrussels designer Kristof Buntinx has already created a furore with his God Save the Queens shirts and gained international fame with a boxer short collection with which he targeted Russian anti-gay laws.
Protest and irony are therefore no strangers to Buntinx, but he also dresses Belgian celebrities in little bespoke gems just as much as he has children photographed as superstars. The exiled Sint-Truiden native has been working under his own label for more than a decade. An official introduction is called for!
Kristof Buntinx was born on 10 September 1975 in the Limburg town of Sint-Truiden. He quickly showed an interest in fashion and design and proceeded to draw from a model and attended sewing and pattern design classes. Buntinx completed internships with several major fashion labels such as Levis jeans and the Amsterdam fashion duo Viktor & Rolf.
His own image language
After his initial designs for the Cinderella Shop in Antwerp he sank his teeth into (and left his fingerprints on) a series of coffee mugs for Godiva. Soon Buntinx would tackle hats, a trick he was able to repeat in 2012 for Royal Ascot.
Shortly thereafter, the Pain clothing line followed, with its own photo series in collaboration with Stijn Vanorbeek. Still inspired by the world of image creation, Buntinx worked with filmmaker Ilke De Vries, this time to explore moving images. The film Vision was the result, in which the designer searched his own conscience by referring to a personal crisis.
Artist’s blood
Between 2008 and 2010 Buntinx focused on hats and a full line of accessories.
Triggered by his own life and personal developments, language associations and puns took up an increasingly important place in his work. Like any true-blue artist, Buntinx also creates from an inner drive. “I have always been crazy about fashion, but designing also proved to be beneficial for my mental health. It is my “therapy with a capital T,” the designer states.
Once Buntinx found his way, an increasing number of opportunities came up: in 2011 the Toga 125 Fashion Awards and a fashion show in which his design Ceci n’est pas un Advocaat shone. That same year Modo Brussels, the MIAT in Ghent and Hong Kong Design week also followed. A prominent fashion watcher from the UK even called Buntinx the most eccentric fashion designer of the Modo Brussels event.
The future is now!
Loved by the international fashion blog scene, Kristof Buntinx does not shun controversy. For example, he came up with a series of socially committed designs such as his answer to the Antwerp rainbow controversy, the God Save the Queens T-shirt’, his Russian boxer shorts, which even reached the American media and the crown jewels for King Philip.
During the last festive period Buntinx surprised friend and foe with a range of crisis jewellery, which questions material luxury. The Christmas dresses designed by Buntinx for Dana Winners’ Christmas tour and for Marlène de Wouters, the presenter at the Queen Elisabeth competition earlier in 2013, were, on the other hand, downright luxurious.
Kristof Buntinx certainly aims to let his designs speak for themselves in 2015.
Stay tuned!