There’s no getting around it, ManiaMania is the most-talked about jewellery label right now – and for good reason. The moodily beautiful and captivating designs, typically involving silver, bronze and crystals, have such resonance because they are a completely tangible extension of their winsome creators, Australian art director and stylist duo Melanie Kamsler and Tamila Purvis. Joining forces in 2009, the pair launched ManiaMania to immediate success – attracting instant press attention and international stockists, as well as finding influential fans in Devendra Banhart, Alison Mosshart and Erin Wasson among many others.
“We like the way a piece of jewelry can become a part of your identity. It’s also a great outlet for us to combine different creative components, and our skills in new ways,” explain the self-confessed jewellery obsessive’s, who previously worked together at Russh magazine as fashion editor and art director before becoming art director for Australian mega-labels Sass&Bide (Kamsler) and stylist for Zimmerman (Purvis).
“We particularly love the end process of shooting the campaigns – that’s where it all comes together, the vision fully realised.” Their latest collection, entitled Reve, inspired by the late, flame-haired enigmatic artist Vali Myers, was shot by renowned photographer Barnaby Roper and modeled by Australian model-of-the-moment, Abbey-Lee-Kershaw – quite a vision to have realized indeed. “Shooting with Barnaby was very inspiring. We've been lucky enough to shoot with some incredibly talented photographers and directors previously, but Barnaby's techniques and processes are really exciting to be a part of,” say the pair, who also had Roper create a short film of their collection, which will exclusively launch on W in the next few weeks. “Also, Abbey Lee is Australian and was our dream girl for this project. Her personal style resonates with our brand, the bohemian 90s love child thing is great – no one can wear crushed velvet like her!”
Ever the bohemian in spirit, ManiaMania creations are the result of Kamsler and Purvis’ shared art and pop-culture fantasies, designed to be “treasures that look like they have magical powers. We're interested in music, mysticism and experimental film, and our label is really a combination of all these inspirations.”
Embodying the wild, vagabond spirit of Vali Myers, whose eccentric personal philosophy and creativity drew countless fans from Patti Smith and Marianne Faithfull, to Donovan, Salvidor Dali and Andy Warhol, ‘Reve’, functions as a concrete retelling of the artists life. Vali’s ‘war-paint’ – intricate facial tattoos of her own creation – inspired a young Patti Smith to have the artist imprint a small lightning bolt on her knee in New York’s infamous Chelsea Hotel, inspires the ‘Patti’ ring; while the ‘Il Porto’ rings allude to Vali's dreamlike residence in Positano, Italy, where she set up a wildlife sanctuary. The ‘Vagabond’ necklace and cuff draw on Vali’s gypsy-like nature, and the ‘Love on the Left Bank’ rings, pendant and bangle reference Ed van der Elsken’s cult photo-book of 1956, filled with romantic images of a young Vali while she lived, in all her penniless grandeur, on the streets of post-war Paris.
Get revved for ManiaMania’s rock’n’roll Reve!