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GLORIOUS
GEMS
Gilan jewelry is winning women over
with its striking modern take on Turkish tradition.
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| Gilan
Jewelers Chintamani Collection 18K-white-gold
jadeite bracelet with diamond accent. |
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| Left:
Gilan Jewelers Harem Collection 18K-white-gold-and-pavèed
spiral earrings with 25.40 total carat diamond
briolets. Right: Gilan Jewelers Chintamani Collection
18K-white-gold, coral bead and diamond chandelier
earrings (two pairs can be combined to form one
pair). |
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| Aerin
Lauder wearing Gilan Jewelers Harem Collection
white-gold-and-diamond spiral earrings at the
CFDA awards (at right, model Carolyn Murphy.)
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A
little less than a year ago, the rarified stretch of
Manhattan's Fifth Avenue that houses Harry Winston,
Cartier and Bulgari heard a faint knock on its hallowed
doors.
Discreetly, a new neighbor moved into a perch on a high
floor of the Crown Building far removed from the glitzy
street-level storefronts. Then – at first inconspicuously
– savvy socialites, stylists on the hunt for the
next best thing, sunglass-clad pop singers and movie
stars, and even a particularly well-informed gentleman
or two looking for a special something for the woman
in his life began to arrive, slipping in and out of
the salon in the sky without notice.
Before the knock became audible to passersby, Gilan
Jewelers already had arrived. And now, after having
spent decades refining their distinct alchemy of rich
tradition and striking modernity in their native Turkey,
with a dazzling new collection in the salon brothers
Ferhan and Muharrem Geylan, founders of Gilan, are well
on their way to worldwide success.
“This is the second new collection we have brought
to New York from Istanbul in this last year alone,”
says Ferhan Geylan. And if the response thus far is
any indication, the Geylans can expect to make many
more voyages to fulfill the growing demand on this side
of the Atlantic. The appointment-only Fifth Avenue salon,
quickly spilling over with eager clientele, is the first
of several anticipated American outposts. A testament
to its presence, among the numbers of those already
devoted to Gilan's remarkable treasures are the
doyennes of New York society, women for whom being in
the know is a way of life. Gigi Mortimer, Renee Rockefeller,
Whitney Fairchild and Princess Yasmin Aga Khan have
all recently been spotted displaying their favorite
pieces from the collection. Gilan has co-sponsored both
the New Yorkers for Children and Parrish Museum galas,
adorning scores of prominent women for the events as
well. And when Aerin Lauder paired Gilan's bewitching
diamond spiral chandelier earrings with her Gucci gown
at the CFDA awards, not only New York society but the
international fashion world stood up and took notice.
With several well-established jewelry design houses
already catering to the international upper echelons,
what is it about the Gilan collection that is winning
over society's most discerning connoisseurs of
jewelry? The answer requires going back long before
the salon's New York opening – even before
the 1980 founding of the Gilan design house in Bursa,
a city known as the former capital of the Ottoman Empire
– to the rich aesthetic traditions of 15th-century
Turkey itself.
“Every piece of the Gilan collection uniquely
harkens back to an aspect of Turkey's artistry
and design, giving Gilan a distinctive quality,”
says Cenk Cokuslu, the Geylans' expert right hand
in New York, who is happy to lead clients along a journey
of Turkey's history of
aesthetic excellence as they view the collection. According
to Cokuslu and the salon's manager, Richard Tyrrell,
the historical design inspirations set Gilan apart from
the high-end Italian and French jewelry houses to which
New York jewelry mavens are accustomed. Tyrrell, an
experienced gemologist, explains that Gilan uses new
laser processes to shape the significant diamonds into
classic cuts that are experiencing a renaissance, such
as the rose cut. The result: stunning pieces that carry
not only the weight of their noteworthy gemstones and
18K gold, but centuries of artistic tradition as well.
The Crochet Collection, for example, takes its inspiration
from the detailed edges of Ottoman manuscripts to create
dramatic white-gold and black-diamond edges on bold
chokers and earrings. Gilan's patented Tulip Cut
shapes the highest quality diamonds and semiprecious
stones into the form of a flowering tulip, the symbol
of the city of Istanbul and perhaps the most densely
symbolic image utilized throughout the Ottoman Empire
on painted ceramics and carved stonework. Elongated
tulips join the floral motif with an image of the majestic
minarets that still define Turkey's urban skylines.
Elaborately etched chandelier earrings mirror the upside
down zarf, or Turkish coffee cup, with strings of diamonds
streaming down suggesting the coffee grinds commonly
used to tell the drinker's fortune.
As the Geylan brothers maintain a respectful commitment
to their own cultural heritage, it is no wonder that
when Turkey's famed Topkapi Palace was in serious
need of a restoration the Turkish Ministry of Culture
turned to them. They lovingly restored the palace to
its former imperial treasury splendor. With one foot
grounded in the incomparable Turkish tradition of opulent
adornment and another in New York, the world's
fashion-forward capital, Gilan is most certainly one
jewelry design house to watch. |
JASMINE
MIR |
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Photo
credit: courtesy Gilan Jewelers; Aerin Lauder and
Carolyn Murphy, Wireimage |
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