What if a jewel could be a catalyst or an invitation for bonding? A device to provoke the chemistry that urges people to touch each other? What if it could bring two or more bodies together to wear the jewel at the same time?
Oxytocin (red is the color of love) is a collaboration between Lodie Kardouss and Alejandro Ruiz initiated and fully pursued online during lockdown.
This collection of jewels is designed to encourage multiple people to wear them at the same time as if they were one. Creating a bigger entity than the jewel itself.
A necklace that begs those who wear it to hug. Bracelets that motivate people to join hands like a team celebrating an alliance or invite them to stroke the arm of the other person. Rings with several holes, for people to interlock their fingers like lovers do or make people play with social codes associated with each finger.
The name of the collection comes from the hormone that stimulates you to caress and cuddle as mothers do with their babies. Preciousness of the jewel itself is no longer the issue, it simply seduces you to take part in an intimate bond. (If your shyness prevents you from getting close to someone, the pictograms next to each jewel give you a good excuse to do so!)
Now that people are increasingly being pushed into isolation, by the coronavirus or by digital media, this jewelry collection is a passionate call to touch each other again and look each other in the eye... Because, after all, what would life be without a physical connection?
All designs: Alejandro Ruiz and Lodie Kardouss
Construction collaborator to Lodie Kardouss in Belgium: Jean-Baptiste Pacucci for The Hug, The Game and The Pact
Construction for Alejandro Ruiz in Spain: La Letreria for The Lovers and The time of a stroke
Models: Fabrice Kada, Jean-Baptiste Pacucci, Pieter T'Jonck, Alejandro Ruiz and Lodie Kardouss
Special thanks to: Pieter T'Jonck, Becraft and Possessions Collective
The piece The Pact was presented in Athens during The Athens Jewelry Week in November 2020.
The full collection was presented in Budapest during The Budapest Jewelry Week in September 2020 together with Possessions Collective.