VHERNIER BY PAE WHITE: WHEN MARINE LIFE BECOMES WEARABLE SCULPTURE

At Vhernier’s Milan flagship, White encountered a stylised bronze crab forming part of the boutique’s architecture. The detail became the starting point for a collaboration that would eventually translate the structure of a crab’s exoskeleton into a series of ten sculptural rings. Rather than reproducing the animal literally, White and Vhernier distilled its articulated shell into an abstract form, allowing the geometry of marine life to become jewellery.

The resulting collection comprises ten variations of a shared sculptural concept. Each design is produced in only two examples, with individual pieces distinguished by their combinations of materials, stones and subtle shifts in colour. The scarcity is therefore intrinsic to the project: the rings are conceived as small-scale artworks with their own individual compositions rather than as a conventional jewellery line built around uniform repetition.

The marine inspiration extends beyond the crab itself. During her work with Vhernier, White brought an abalone shell from the Northern California coast, connecting the project to an element that has appeared throughout her artistic practice. The shell’s natural iridescence became another visual reference, particularly in the way colour changes according to light, surface and viewpoint.

That relationship between nature and perception is particularly suited to Vhernier’s approach to materials. The Maison’s signature Trasparenze technique combines rock crystal with coloured gemstones to create magnifying and optical effects. Rather than allowing the stones beneath the crystal to remain visually fixed, the treatment alters their appearance as light moves across the surface, producing an impression of depth and shifting colour.

In the Pae White collection, this technique gives the rings a distinctly fluid quality. Faceted rock crystal sits above precious compositions, refracting light and amplifying the colours beneath it. The effect recalls the shifting surface of water and the changing iridescence of abalone, while also reinforcing the collection’s sculptural character.

The crab’s anatomy is treated with equal abstraction. Its shell becomes a framework of angular forms, while pavé-set stones suggest the animal’s articulated protrusions. Gold provides the underlying structure, with combinations including white gold, abalone, jade, sapphires and diamonds appearing across the collection. The materials are not simply decorative additions; they help reconstruct the visual relationships that first inspired the project.

There is a sense of translation at every stage. A physical object in a Milanese interior prompts an observation about marine anatomy; that observation becomes a digital and sculptural study; and the resulting form is then interpreted through the techniques of Vhernier’s artisans in Valenza. The process brings together technologies associated with contemporary artistic practice and the highly specialised handcraft of jewellery making.

This exchange between disciplines is also consistent with Pae White’s broader practice. The Los Angeles-based American artist works across sculpture, installation, textiles and other media, frequently exploring pattern, material, scale and found elements. Her interest in shells and objects gathered from the natural world provides a meaningful context for the collection’s marine references, particularly the abalone and crab that underpin its visual language.

For Vhernier, the collaboration extends a longstanding relationship between jewellery and sculpture. The Maison was founded in Valenza, Italy, in 1984 by sculptor Carlo Ciarli and Angela Camurati. Its designs developed around an interest in sculptural volume, the human body and unusual combinations of materials. Carlo and Maurizio Traglio acquired the company in 2001, while its first Milan boutique opened in 2002. Since 2024, Vhernier has formed part of the Richemont Group. Its jewellery continues to be handcrafted in Valenza, a centre with a long-established reputation for Italian jewellery production.

That heritage helps explain why the Pae White project feels particularly coherent within the Maison’s universe. Vhernier has long treated jewellery as an exercise in form, preferring bold volumes and carefully controlled surfaces to conventional ornament alone. Its use of materials such as titanium, bronze and ebony alongside precious metals and gemstones has also contributed to a design language that places material relationships at the centre of the object.

The collection’s first presentation took place in Los Angeles in February 2026, at the private residence of contemporary art collector Eugenio López. The setting reflected the project’s position between the worlds of high jewellery and contemporary art.

Its European presentation followed in Venice in May, at Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel during the opening days surrounding the city’s major contemporary art events. The choice of Venice added another layer to a collection concerned with water, marine life and the movement of light across surfaces. The presentation further established the collaboration as an artistic project as much as a jewellery launch.

Vhernier’s current boutique network includes locations across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. In Dubai, the Maison’s official store locator lists its boutique at Mall of the Emirates, First Floor, Unit H43, Al Barsha 1. The brand also lists a forthcoming Dubai Mall location in Fashion Avenue.

The Pae White rings ultimately resist easy categorisation. They are jewellery, but their scale and construction invite the viewer to consider them as objects in their own right. They draw from marine biology without becoming literal representations of it, and they use precious materials without allowing their value to overshadow their formal character.

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the collaboration is this process of transformation: a bronze crab becomes an architectural study, an abalone shell becomes a lesson in colour and light, and a collection of natural references is condensed into objects small enough to wear. In that movement from observation to abstraction, Vhernier and Pae White find a particularly elegant meeting point between contemporary art and the ancient human desire to turn the natural world into something precious.

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