IMOGEN BELFIELD

Yellow Gold Bronze Plasma Ring

Touted as the world’s “largest inhabited castle” for years Windsor Castle, located in Berkshire, England, has served as the official home of British royalty including Queen Elizabeth II.  

It houses two farms, and a private swimming pool.  England is also home to featured jewelry designer Imogen Belfield.

There is beauty in imperfection; and Belfield’s unabashedly bold fashion jewelry designs of gold covered bronze and silver are a celebration of that.  

Her striking cocktail rings, link bracelets, and necklaces are a wonderful deviation from the prim and pristine.

Outlines are askew and roughhewn patterned after the jagged asymmetry of stalactites and stalagmites.  The patterns shroud her creations with a tad of ferocity.  Even so her handmade jewelry, laced with porcelain fragments, is relentlessly stylish albeit daunting. 

Her unapologetic style is not without accolades garnering recognition including awards from the British Jewellery Association; participation in the British Fashion Council’s Rock Vault during London Fashion Week; and the jewels of choice for Cameron Diaz’ femme fatale character, Malkina, in the 2013 Ridley Scott film The Counselor.

Belfield has always teemed with exhaustive creativity.  Jewelry passed down from grandparents was subject to the designer’s restless need to re-imagine.  

Gold Plated Silver and Porcelain  Asymmetric Curve Pendant (left); Cameron Diaz
Wearing Asymmetric Curve Pendant in The Counselor (right)

“I was always looking at unusual ways to take a traditional piece and make it something completely different.  I would add a gritty, chunky chain to a brooch pin.  I was never able to leave a piece given to me as-is.”

A graduate of the Sir John Cass School of Art, Media and Design, and an intern of über designer Shaun Leane Belfield’s creative process is one of experimentation.  In addition to rock formations, sculpture and architecture influence her expressive design approach as well as her work with papier mâché. 

“There were these great sculptors who were based in Cornwall, England.  I thought it was an amazing place to develop my interest in art.  Everything I made was big, and my work with sculpture turned into metalwork and jewelry. 

I do lots of annealing, casting, soldering and do weird things with stone settings like placing it upside down or backwards.  I would love to spend my entire days in my workshop trying new things and being creative.”

Yellow Gold Plated Bronze
Spectre Bracelet

2015 Jewelry Trend Alert: Belfield’s visually intense designs are statement pieces without question, and that of course includes statement necklaces which put Belfield on trend.