Balenciaga in collaboration with designer Shahar Livne,  designed a jewellery line that fits an imaginative future world in which clothing is meant to transform over many years and can be worn for decades or reused forever, showing the ageing process of materials as a desired aesthetic. 

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In the “Metamorphism” project, which is an ongoing research project that started in 2017, Livne speculates on a future in which plastic waste further permeates the earth’s surface and that one day blend with natural matter. It will become an entirely new valuable and precious resource that, like petroleum nowadays, we will mine in the future. Livne turned the plastic into a new speculative clay-like material that she calls 'Lithoplast', a material that acts as a medium to make us think differently about plastic as a resource.

In collaboration with Demna Gvasalia and the Balenciaga accessories department team, Livne developed a collection of jewellery including rings, bangles, and earrings in various sizes, shapes, and in the colors black and white. They are made from ocean sourced plastic waste retrieved and cleaned by Oceanworks® and upcycled plastics from recycling facilities, which Livne combined with calcium carbonate, a residue of the marble industry and a material that naturally takes part in the fossilization of organic matter.

 

The shapes Livne used refer to archetypical jewellery designs. She translated that into limited design jewellery that was made by a process of Geo-mimicking by hand and later scanned in 3D, to create a coherent reproduced series and finished with artisanal methods that are used in goldsmithing.

The collection will be sold worldwide in Balenciaga stores and website from May 2021.