2 Met Gala newbies took their initial steps up the famous staircase last night: Pamela Anderson and Pandora. As the face of the jewelry expert’s 2023 Lab-Grown Diamonds campaign, Anderson matched her custom pendants and brooch with a coordinating naked customized Oscar de la Renta dress. Pandora released lab-grown diamonds in 2022 however these pieces mark the launching of colored diamonds amongst the brand name’s offerings.
Pandora co-creative directors Francesco Terzo and Alessandro Filippo Ficarelli utilized Anderson’s enthusiasm for the natural world, specifically her farm in British Columbia (pictured in her 2023 documentary, Pamela: A Love Story), as a beginning point. In an e-mail to InStyle, the designers wrote: “We were influenced straight by Pamela, and created the pieces around the concept of freshness, seeing Pamela as embodying a lightness comparable to the morning dew.”
Anderson’s suite of gems (2 long strands of diamonds draped around her shoulder and along her upper back, and a brooch pinned at her hip) were handcrafted in Providence, Rhode Island– a simple three hours north of the Met. The smallest state in the nation has an abundant history as a jewelry manufacturing hub, dating all the way back to 1794. It still keeps a strong infrastructure of fine and costume precious jewelry workmanship and holds trump card status for numerous prominent jewelry experts.
The pieces were constructed from start to complete under the roof of a workshop that has been crafting jewels for the past 4 decades. From establishing the design to shaping the molds, the development of the pieces at the facility took place in tandem with Terzo and Ficarelli. The technical construct went together with the visual vision, making sure the dream was recognized with perfect– no diamond pun planned– execution. “Creating customized pieces is like telling and sharing a story. We were inspired to be unique and distinct while remaining real to our visual,” the duo wrote. The diamond strands of the pendants and cascading diamonds from the brooch were indicated to represent dew drops in Anderson’s garden.
Creating for the Met Gala was an invigorating obstacle for the co-creative directors. “There is a theatrical component to the Met styles that adds a layer of entertainment that is extremely fascinating, fun, and allows for creative storytelling.” The pressure of recent years’ styles just assisted stoke the fire of imagination. “A preferred is certainly the 2011 McQueen exhibit, which we found extremely powerful and moving. Extra favorites have actually included Heavenly Bodies in 2018 and most just recently 2019’s Camp: Notes on Fashion.”
When the designs were settled, three-dimensional molds were developed, then cast in an alloy of 24k white gold, which was then polished and finally set with Pandora’s lab-grown diamonds– the process needed an estimated 380 hours from style to finished item. Nearly 200 carats of lab-grown diamonds were utilized in the pieces that travelled through the hands of 20 craftsmens at the workshop.
In the end, what do all of these numbers amount to? One unforgettable moment for these Met Gala first-timers.
