Georg Jensen Uses Women Role Models In New Ad Campaign

Iranian professional motocross rider Behnaz Shafiei

Danish design house Georg Jensen turned to five female role models to head its new campaign with the tagline, “You can never be too much you.”

The global video and print campaign encourages women to be themselves and to chart their own path to success. This values-driven approach is the vision of Eva-Lotta Sjostedt, who was appointed the first female CEO of Georg Jensen earlier this year and today leads the senior management team, where half its members are female, including Meeling Wong, U.S. President. 

World champion boxer Cecilia Brækhus

“At Georg Jensen we’ve always encouraged women to be themselves and make their own success. Our campaign is the extension of that very philosophy and the women featured are the embodiment of that,” Sjöstedt said.

Award-winning chef Dominique Crenn

The role models featured in the campaign are: award-winning film director Susanne Bier (Denmark), WBA, WBC and WBO world champion welterweight boxer Cecilia Brækhus (Norway), award-winning comedian Sarah Kendall (Australia), professional motocross rider Behnaz Shafiei (Iran) and Michelin star chef Dominique Crenn (USA). 

Award-winning comedian Sarah Kendall

What these women have in common is they defied conventions and rose to the tops of their professions, the global design firm said in a statement.

Award-winning film director Susanne Bier

The campaign is the product of creative agency Forsman & Bodenfors and award-winning director Lærke Herthoni. In addition, the company says it reflects a company influenced by men and women—from the master silversmith Georg Jensen’s wife Laura and daughter Lise who were part of the early business to female designers such as Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe, Nina Koppel and Zaha Hadid who have collaborated with the design house over the years.

“We wanted this campaign to transcend ideals about beauty,” Sjöstedt said. “The women featured are powerful role models.” 

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Zaha Hadid’s Leaves Landmark Jewelry Line For Georg Jensen Before Untimely Death

The Georg Jensen cuff bracelet designed by Zaha Hadid

The story I was going to write today was to be a bit different then how it now appears. One of the highlights from an otherwise lackluster Baselworld 2016 was the public introduction of a new Georg Jensen jewelry collection designed by the famed architect Zaha Hadid. 

But the narrative changed with the sudden and unexpected death of Ms. Hadid Thursday. The world’s most famous and accomplished woman architect died of a heart attack. She was 65. 

Zaha Hadid Photo courtesy of Georg Jensen

The jewelry collection she designed for Georg Jensen, called the “Georg Jensen X Zaha Hadid The Lamellae Collection,” has the potential to be a landmark moment for the famed Danish silversmith brand. That may still be the case but it also will be likely remembered as Ms. Hadid’s last completed project—even though it is on a much smaller scale than her futuristic curved buildings. 

Georg Jensen ring designed by Zaha Hadid

Ms. Hadid, in a prepared statement, discussed working at a smaller scale and with nature-inspired shapes that are synonymous with the Georg Jensen brand.

“Working with Georg Jensen presented an opportunity to express our ideas in different scales and through different media,” she said. “Our starting point was the Danish house’s design links to nature. There is an inherent integrity within the organic structural logic found in nature and we often look at the coherence of natural systems when we work to create environments. Our challenge was to translate that into something that can be worn; to reinterpret the rich history and tradition of Georg Jensen’s design approach into something new.”

The cuff bracelet worn by the new CEO of Georg Jensen, Eva-Lotta Sjöstedt during Baselworld 2016. Photo by Anthony DeMarco

The jewelry collection of five rings and three cuff bangles were inspired by the Wangjing Soho near Beijing, designed by Ms. Hadid, an approximate 4.2-million square-foot retail and office complex of three curvilinear asymmetric buildings that appear to circle one another and change appearance with the light of the day and the angle they are viewed. The buildings with distinct lines between each floor of windows have been described as appearing like “dancing Chinese fans” and “curved sails.” The architect has reportedly said the buildings were supposed to resemble koi swimming around each other in a pond. 

The full collection in sterling silver plated black rhodium set with black diamonds. Photo by Anthony DeMarco

Georg Jensen was acquired in 2012 by the holding company, Investcorp and David Chu, who serves as creative director and chairman of the brand. His task he told me a year ago was to take the company’s heritage and modernize it for the 21st Century. One of the things he started doing was to develop partnerships with well known designers and artists, which was part of the company’s heritage that somehow it lost. 

As the story goes Chu sat next to Ms. Hadid at dinner in Beijing for the official opening of the Wangjing Soho project in September 2014. They immediately decided then to collaborate on a jewelry line.

Also involved in the project was Meeling Wong, Georg Jensen managing director of Jewelry. Wong said she first met Ms. Hadid in November 2014 at her London headquarters. Wong described the working process as a "true collaboration."

"We worked very closely with her design team, in person, phone and emails. It was a very fluid process and a close partnership. I went to their London studio to show the first prototypes, and met with them several times in person," Wong said. "Zaha trusted that we would execute her designs so that they can be worn."

Crafted in both sterling silver and sterling silver plated black rhodium set with black diamonds, the jewels in the collection feature smooth flowing ribbon-like shapes contrasted with sharp edges. The silver naturally alternates between a polished and matte effect, while the black rhodium set with black diamond pieces have a subtle gleam to the graphic, architectural forms. The signature piece in the collection has to be the lengthy cuff bracelet that wraps the wrist and engages light. 

The public seating area just outside the Georg Jensen exhibition space

This is not just a “starchitect” putting her name on a product. This is a well-thought out contemporary, architecturally influenced collection of jewels that express modern elegance.

Wong described Ms. Hadid's involvement with the project as "total engagement and focus on arriving at a final result that did not compromise or dilute the original design and concept."

For Georg Jensen it is by far the most on-brand jewelry product, and perhaps overall product, it has produced since the new owners began its campaign to rejuvenate the brand. It is an original design with a contemporary motif that moves the brand forward into the modern era. 

The brand must have known it had something special as it pulled out all the stops in presenting the collection in Baselworld. This included creating an installation of the design motif in the exhibition space and seating area just outside the booth. 

“There is continuity in Zaha’s collection—and, indeed, in her work—that reflects the history of our iconic jewelry design celebrating nature’s seemingly simple yet mathematical forms,” Chu said in a prepared statement. “It is a proud continuation of Georg Jensen’s modernist design signature and a century of collaborating with designers whose vision transforms the way we think.”

And, unfortunately, it is also the end of the relationship.

The collection will be available in September.

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Georg Jensen Names David Chu as CEO

David Chu

Danish luxury silver brand and global retailer, Georg Jensen, said Friday it has appointed fashion designer and entrepreneur, David Chu, as its chief executive officer. Chu is well-known in the world of fashion for founding Nautica, the global lifestyle and clothing brand, in 1983 and turning it into a company with $1 billion in sales by the time he sold it in 2003 to Vanity Fair Corp.

Chu has been with Georg Jensen since November 2012, when the company was acquired by Investcorp. Chu was brought on as co-chair of Georg Jensen’s board of directors and chief creative officer. He will continue to serve as a board member as well as CCO to oversee the design direction and strategy for all products.

“My goal is to bring Georg Jensen to the design conscious community all over the world,” Chu said in a statement.

Among his many positions since selling Nautica, Chu served as chief creative officer of Tumi, the global luggage, travel and accessory brand.

Founded in 1904, Georg Jensen is known for its collaborations with leading artists and designers of the 20th century, including Henning Koppel, Johan Rohde and Arne Jacobsen, who are among the masters of 20th century modernism and Scandinavian design.

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Georg Jensen Acquired by Investment Group for $140 Million

Georg Jensen Fusion Rings

Investcorp, a group that invests in what it calls “alternative products,” said Monday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Danish luxury silver brand, Georg Jensen, for $140 million from private equity group Axcel Capital Partners.

With the sale comes a change in key personnel. David Chu, founder of Nautica, will join the company on closing as chief creative director and co-chairman of the Investcorp board. Also joining the board on closing will be Guy Leymarie, former CEO of DeBeers Diamond Jewellers, Cartier International and Dunhill.

Georg Jensen is a global luxury brand that designs, manufactures and distributes silver jewelry, watches, fine silverware and high-end housewares. With a history that spans more than 100 years, the Georg Jensen brand has a deep heritage in fine silver goods and represents quality craftsmanship and timeless designs.

“We are pleased to be entrusted with taking Scandinavia's preeminent luxury brand to a global level. We believe that in partnership with the current solid management team, said Hazem Ben-Gacem, head of Investcorp's European corporate investments activities. “Georg Jensen stands to become one of the leading hard luxury brands in the 21st Century.”

Georg Jensen was founded by the eponymous Danish designer in 1904. Today the business has 94 fully owned stores and three franchised stores around the world. The vertically integrated company has approximately 1,200 employees worldwide. In 2011, the company had sales of approximately $160 million. Georg Jensen is part of the Royal Scandinavia Group, which was bought by Axcel in 2001. 

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