Alex and Trahanas has been embracing the Mediterranean way of life since 2017. The Sydney-born fashion and lifestyle label, founded by Alexandra Heard and Heleena Trahanas, injects an effortless Euro-summer cool into all of its wares, including ceramics, table linen and chic resort-style clothing. Italian-inflected motifs are found throughout, from pasta to nautical shapes.
The brand’s 15th collection, Frutti Della Vita, is inspired by the humble olive. And while the label has previously produced jewellery pieces with long-time collaborator and Dinosaur Designs co-founder Louise Olsen, this new drop marks Alex and Trahanas’s first solo jewellery line, named Elia. Plump golden olives adorn earrings, necklaces and rings alongside a new capsule of holiday garments in organic cotton and Italian boucle.
How did Frutti Della Vita and Elia come about?
Heleena Trahanas: For the past few years we’ve been really fortunate to collaborate with Louise Olsen from LO Collection. Working alongside her has provided us with so many learnings and insights and experiences – she opened up the door to jewellery for us. Last year, Alex and I were working on some new garments, and we were working with an olive form as an embellishment on a dress. We thought it would be great to take this olive form and see it in jewellery, as opposed to just a button on a dress. Louise gave us our wings and encouraged us to do it.
What’s the resonance of the olive as a motif?
Alexandra Heard: We’ve explored an olive theme before – in our new ceramic edition, we’ve explored a pasta bowl which has an olive shape, and we also have in the pipeline more olive-inspired things. We’ve gone a little olive crazy – there are so many beautiful ways it can be painted as well, so we’re diving deep into olives.
HT: Between us, Alex and I have enjoyed eating olives across many countries. We studied the forms of olives and sizes and shapes. We wanted to create something quite sculptural and unique, and something that was true to us. The design process started from there, and then we started exploring scale and textures.
AH: We’re embracing the irregularity and the imperfect, organic form.
How would you style these pieces, or what occasions would you wear them for?
HT: I really love to layer when I wear jewellery, and I love that our pieces give us the opportunity to layer or pare it back. I also love that we’ve come up with a few different sizes, particularly with the earrings. They’re kind of mismatched – once again, embracing and celebrating that beautiful organic olive form – and the same through our necklaces, where we’ve played with scale again to really create something unique.
AH: We’ve done gold for the first time, because we always think about when you’re diving into the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, and you have to take off your costume jewellery. One of our other pieces, the Sautoir, is almost a metre long, and was inspired by this fabulous Italian woman. They all have their unique and different things that we really love about them. I get joy each time I wear them. Today I’m wearing this piece with my plain stud earrings, but this evening I’m going for a glass of wine, so I’ll be wearing something different again.
What Heleena and I are thinking about is how you’re feeling when you’re having people over for a long table lunch or you’re going out to a special occasion. If you’re hosting at your home, all the little touch points that bring life into those special occasions that you really look forward to and enjoy with your loved ones.
With different pieces of the jewellery, we think about the different occasions that you would wear them, and then how you would feel and what you’ll be doing. And often thinking about our travels as well, and how we would feel wearing various pieces whilst we’re on our adventures.
Who are you designing for?
AH: Occasionally, Heleena and I are in store, and we get to meet our customers – they’re genuinely lovely, interesting people who love travel, love food and entertaining, are social and have an eye for art and culture.
Is there an element of escapism in the Alex and Trahanas brand?
AH: Absolutely. Our store is this beautiful hub of travel discussions and dreams and plans and experiences. There’s almost as much enjoyment in thinking about and planning and romanticising about Europe as there is actually being there, creating your own home or space. Our idea is to continue that into your everyday lives, whether it’s in your jewellery or your clothes or your tabletop, and how you entertain or eat every day.
What has the feedback been from your customers so far on the new line?
HT: It’s been fantastic – really positive. We’ve received such lovely feedback [about] all the new jewellery. It’s been nothing but positive, which is really encouraging for us.
This article first appeared in Domain Review, in partnership with Broadsheet.
