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Our dear couple Peter farago and Ingela Klemetz Farago at our cocktail at Royal Court Jeweller W.A. Bolin

Noble mingling at the Royal Court Jeweller's

Claes Britton | Apr 20, 2007 | 0 comments

Is it morally justifiable to buy a handbag for 12,000 dollars? How about a ruby necklace for thirty grand – or a solitary diamond ring for a hundred even?

The answer to all of these questions are certainly no, judging from a surprisingly animated debate which has been raving in our Swedish media over the past few weeks, with no signs of fading but rather picking up volume and velocity day by day, in accordance with that fine old snowball effect. An increasing number of leftist female intellectuals from the punk generation are speaking up loud and clear against the devils of manic consumerism, perverted beauty ideals and other evils of our decadent present day, proudly proclaiming their own personal protests against all this shit by purchasing cheap 80-buck hadbags and stoically endurig living their daily lives in murky half-ass interiors in diminutive Södermalm rental appartments with rickety odd chairs and book shelfs. The intensity of this debate could lead one to suspect that we're actually seeing no less than something of a last stand for the free leftist intellectual in a corrupt and commercialized media landscape where even the culture pages these days, as we're forced to realize, are flooded with fashion, vanity and shallowness. You can't but support these brave females in their righteous cause.

Living my life in harmony with my own moral ideals, however, has always been extremely difficult, not to say impossible, for Yours Truly. I fear that we ourselves and our operations would be instantly and mercilessly doomed beyond hope and redemption if one of these gals should get into her mind to scrutinize us. We can only hope that this day will never dawn...

Well, none of these were subjects that we could afford ourselves to brood over when we, together with our honored new client and collaborator, Royal Court Jeweller W.A. Bolin, arranged a cocktail for some hundred plus old friends and acquaintances from around Stockholm´s small fashion circles, to see and admire all the spectacular objects which were soon to be clubbed away at the big spring jewellery auction, and to drink champagne and eat canapées along with that. Few if any of these charming ladies and odd male figures had ever set foot in the esteemed shop in Stureplan in the center of Stockholm before, and I dare claim that many were stunned by the overwhelming amounts och brightly glimmering beauty which, for once, was real and genuine on this night. My old friend Johan Kinde, the pop star, once sang that ”Diamonds are a girl's very best friend” – a truth which seemed to be fully confirmed, along with that which says that rubies, emeralds and saphires ain't so bad either. I know that more than one of these stylists, fashionistas and fashion victims made a new discovery on this evening: the fact that the whole phenomenon of vintage jewellery is little known by a broader audience, and therefore still grossly underpriced, with opportunities for making real bargains, purchasing amazing beauty and history for comparatively astonishingly small money – we're talking rickety Södermalm assets here. In some case, I think we were even able to convince someone that when you buy a small solitary damond ring from Tiffany´s, your paying 75 percent of the price just for the logo, just as in the case of a handbag from Gucci. Need I add that we also had a fine and pleasant time together?

This cocktail was a humble beginning to what we hope will be a long, fun a rewarding collaboration. Vi can assure you that there will be even better cause to keep your eyes on W.A. Bolin in the future and that we will present some interesting news in the fall. For now, please do go in and check out the objects from the spring auction on www.bolin.se (unfortunately, the website can be a little tricky for Mac users – a new site is under construction). Check out more images from the evening on www.stureplan.se.

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Noble mingling at the Royal Court Jeweller's

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