saskia diez

I was supposed to be at work an hour ago…. Monday, Monday, Monday…. I guess that’s the problem with long relaxing weekends:

Anyway, I thought you’d enjoy today’s designer, Saskia Diez. I especially like her “Papier” series …an experiment in revising the classical typology: two designers, Saskia and Stefan Diez, have pointed out the basic requirements to a travel bag – durability, protection and light weight – and sought for an appropriate material other than the traditional choices of leather and reinforced textiles. The “Papier” bags are made of Tyvek®, a synthetic paper that is extremely lightweight – 135g for the bigger and 115g for the smaller bag – but at the same time exceptionally robust, both water- and tear-proof. The material is completely recyclable. Apart from that, one will appreciate the high-end finishes applied to such seemingly banal material as paper. Silkscreen printing techniques gives it a particularly attractive look. “Papier” won the German Designpreis 2010.

More about the designer:

After completing her training as a goldsmith Saskia Diez decided to study industrial design. It was essentially coincidence that led her back to jewelry design. And you can clearly discern the perspective of design in her informal reduced products. With their clarity and intelligent simplicity they are truly captivating, playing with tradition and modernity, and citing the ‘zeitgeist’ without being trendy. They consciously challenge the principles according to which traditional jewelry pieces are made. Despite her serious, reflected way of working her designs are never lacking in poetry.

Saskia Diez draws the inspiration for her pieces from many different sources: People, pieces of clothing, materials or moods, from small everyday details. Sometimes it is even mistakes, minor inconsistencies that lead her to new ideas. Stimulated by such observations and associations she searches for the right materials and combines the ideas with the symbolic content, the use and the function of the materials until something new emerges from them.

In so doing, Saskia Diez is less concerned with the mere value of the materials than with their authenticity. What she seeks to emphasize is a different sort of value explained by the beauty and feel/look of the material, irrespective of whether she uses wood, glass, precious stones or gold. Her designs are characterized by great elegance and distinguished restraint. At the same time they appear very feminine and sexy.

Jewelry pieces by Saskia Diez are light and not flashy. When viewing them you can immediately spy the luxury of reflection. Not least of all they elicit a unique beauty. Her jewelry was recently awarded the “Premium Fashion Award” for the best new accessory collection of the fall / winter 2009/2010 season at the Premium fashion fair in the context of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin. For the bag series PAPIER Saskia Diez won the Designpreis Deutschland 2010.