Thai jewellery designer Ek Thongprasert makes bold statements

The pieces are big and bold, and very different to the quielty spoken man who designs them.

Thai-born, Belgium-trained jeweller Ek Thongprasert was at Joyce in Hong Kong in March to launch his latest collection, and the designer was modest considering the name he has made for himself in the fashion world. The avant-garde and classic shapes in his eponymous clothes collections are worthy of column inches, but today it’s his statement jewellery that is making some loud pings on the fashion world’s radar.

A photo shoot by Mario Testino in Vogue Germany last year got the industry in a flap (his pieces have also featured in Cosmopolitan, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar).

“After I graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 2008, I started showing my work in Paris - mostly my graduate collection of clothes and jewellery. But what I saw then was that the jewellery market was less competitive and in need of some variety, so I followed through on that instinct.”

Today his vintage-inspired pieces are winning the hearts of modern women. The pieces, rich in historical, social and spiritual meaning, challenge perceptions of jewellery designs that had been long forgotten or considered too antique or too classic, and out of date.