For jeweler Dries Criel, his strategy to his clientele has at all times been one among proximity and intimacy, typically bringing his designs straight to their palms and houses.
He’s now returning their hospitality by throwing open the doorways to his universe with a brand new showroom within the coronary heart of Antwerp’s diamond district.
At 2,100 sq. ft and with lofty ceilings giving it additional quantity, the handle feels spacious — even for Criel, who deemed it “a bit too huge” in dialog. “I rented it targeted on development,” he quips.
That development isn’t solely by way of jewellery design and gross sales. Publish-pandemic, he felt a want to specific himself past jewellery, given his proclivity for adorning at house.
“It was at all times one thing I need to do [and] I felt that my purchasers, each present and new ones, felt the should be a part of this story in a unique need,” he says. “I felt they actually wished to come back in the direction of me and expertise the power round bespoke jewellery another way.”
Situated on the primary ground of a rehabilitated former warehouse as soon as owned by the defunct Staatsspoorwegen railway firm, the area is a studio-meets-salon that Criel imagined with Belgian architect Glenn Sestig.
Dries Criel
Courtesy of Dries Criel
Plus, he had the impression that these with a leaning towards his daring bespoke designs are “much less and fewer concerned about a traditional retail expertise,” he provides.
By day, it’s the workplaces the place the jeweler and his crew work and the place purchasers are welcomed in one-on-one appointments.
By evening, Criel entertains company for intimate dinners — and the occasional creative efficiency. Earlier than plying treasured stones and metals, pirouettes and pointes have been the technique of expression for the Belgian.
Cue then a spot that isn’t your conventional ground-floor retail idea.
Throughout are works by Belgian painter and sculptor Renato Nicolodi, juxtaposed with furnishings by Ann Demeulemeester, Jorge Zalszupin and Middernacht & Alexander. There are additionally two originals by American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
On the one hand he needs to favor items by his Belgian compatriots. On the opposite, he’s “very a lot hooked on good classic items or good antiques,” a scenario solely compounded by having an antiques vendor amongst his finest associates.
Views of Dries Criel’s Antwerp showroom.
Jef Jacobs/ Courtesy of Dries Criel
One latest addition is an 18th century plaster bust of Antinous, a Greek youth who was the lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian. One other is a leatherbound tome with unique painted costumes of Léon Bakst, a Russian painter who designed costumes and units for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. He additionally extols a few latest stone discover from a long-closed mine in Belgium.
All these are “small issues that solely imply one thing” to him, in his opinion, however he considers them ice breakers. “Particularly while you don’t know the potential shopper, it’s good to have [items] like that as a result of then you’ll be able to actually take individuals into your story with out — I hope — ever sounding pretentious.”
