GOLD STANDARD: Magdalena Frackowiak was running late to her own party. Slightly breathless, she burst into an upstairs room at the historic restaurant Lapérouse in Paris on Tuesday evening, apologizing profusely about getting caught in traffic.
The Victoria’s Secret model, wearing a sheer black lace dress, took advantage of Paris Fashion Week to host a cocktail marking the official launch of her debut jewelry line, consisting of 26 pieces including rings, bracelets, brooches, earrings and necklaces handcrafted in her native Poland from 18-carat gold.
Frackowiak’s boyfriend, Daniele Cavalli, Lily Donaldson, Ellen von Unwerth, Mytheresa.com’s Justin O’Shea and Veronika Heilbrunner, Catherine Baba and Chinese stylist Leaf Greener turned out to check out the designs.
Frackowiak said her inspiration was architecture, the subject she was studying before being lured away by a career in fashion.
Related Galleries
“It has a lot of geometry inside. It’s all about spikes, circles and it connects to the things that I love the most in architecture. I’ve always been inspired by architects like Shigeru Ban or even sculptors like Richard Serra. It’s all about line — a very elegant line,” she explained.
Frackowiak opted not to use precious stones.
“I felt that gold itself is very powerful. I always feel like when we have so many stones in jewelry, we don’t see the beauty of the gold because it’s so fogged by so many diamonds and stones, so I wanted to keep it very simple, very sleek, very minimalistic — it’s all about the textures,” she added.
Some designs feature small dots drilled into the surface, others are hammered, and yet others are buffed into an irregular texture resembling the surface of water. Frackowiak also showed a black silk choker dotted with tiny gold studs.
“Luxury nowadays is to have pieces that are handmade,” she noted.
The line is already on sale at Paris concept store Montaigne Market, with prices ranging from 1,605 euros, or $1,800 at current exchange, for a small ring, to 11,720 euros, or $13,145, for a choker.