By Michelle Hespe
More than 180 people — including 50 fashion and lifestyle editors and representatives from major retailers across Australia — attended the grand launch of Pandora’s LovePods at the Art Gallery of NSW earlier this month.
The Art Gallery of NSW was transformed for the Australian launch of LovePods
LovePods are a luxury, high-end product that stand on their own, but retailers have embraced the concept of ‘collectable’ jewellery. With LovePods, the temptation is to add pieces: to stack the rings that fit together or to buy matching pieces to wear the necklace, earrings and bracelets together.
Channel 9 sports reporter Stephanie Brantz was the MC for the evening at which guests enjoyed a three-course meal and live jazz entertainment.
As the Bollinger flowed, guest mingled and met the designers of LovePods. Lee Antony Gray from Britain and Mads Trolle from Denmark have been working together as jewellery designers for close to a decade — first at Ole Lynggaard and then Georg Jensen.
They joined Pandora in 2007 to create the 18ct gold LovePods range and used the life cycle of a flower as their inspiration for the designs. The sleek lines and the curved contours of seed pods and flower buds influenced both designers when they were creating LovePods.
Gray showed guests slides of images that provided inspiration for the range, including Jean Marie Maussad’s ‘Manned Cloud’ and Mariko Mori’s ‘Wave UFO’.
Pandora brand manager – Australia, Jeff Burnes, said the response to LovePods has been overwhelming, with retailers saying the price point of the jewellery is highly competitive.
