Jewellery for Life
Thematic Gallery (3) & (4),
Hong Kong Heritage Museum
17 May 2008 - 16 February 2009

Hong Kong Design Series 6

Many people think of jewellery as having only a decorative role, a trinket to adorn the body or simply to be beautiful in itself. Yet this belief pays little consideration to the functions that jewellery has performed throughout history and also continues to perform in the Hong Kong economy. In reality, nearly everyone has an association with jewellery in terms of certain values — values not intrinsic to the objects themselves but arising from social and historical factors such as status, commemoration, trends, fashion and so on. Contemporary jewellers and designers have learned to exploit many of these associative values and emphasise jewellery's role as a vehicle for the self-expression of both the designer and the wearer.

"Hong Kong Design Series 6: Jewellery for Life" is the last exhibition in our Hong Kong Design Series. Together with our guest curator Ms Lo Kai-yin, we explore jewellery from three perspectives: 1) meaning and history: jewellery was first worn as a form of personal adornment to beautify the wearer and as a material symbol of their status in this world and the next; 2) history and development of the Hong Kong jewellery industry: from traditional goldsmiths, through OEM (original equipment manufacturing) for global export, to manufacturers' own brands (ODM, or original design manufacturing) and, more recently, the emergence of designer brands (OBM, or original brand manufacturing); and 3) jewellery brands and trends: ten renowned local manufacturer brands and designer brands are invited to showcase representative works from different periods of development, while three young designers are putting on display experimental works from their collections.