As many of you may have heard already, Kerry Howley, an Art student from Middlesex University recently won the Museum of Domestic Architecture’s Arthur Silver Award for her graduate collection titled Attraction/Aversion. Attraction/Aversion features necklaces made out of human hair. Yes, human hair.
Kerry Howley’s vision behind this project was to see how human emotions are conflicting. Most people are very attached to their hair and consider it to be an important part of their appearance. However, once hair is cut and has lost the connection with a person’s body, people generally find it disgusting.
Kerrly Howley wanted to create beautiful and abstract necklaces made out of hair to see if these patterns can make cut hair an attraction again instead of being an aversion. She spent over 60 hours creating designs for each necklace to try and make them beautiful again. Howley’s line was inspired by Victorians who used hair as an ornament to make Victorian jewelry. Since Kerry Howley makes her necklaces by hand, her jewelry line could fall under the category of coveted handmade jewelry. What do you think?
Also because it has an artsy aspect to it, it could become a trend. Do you think these necklaces will attract people or will people be averted from them? Also, if the line is successful, will the success be because people consider it high fashion or because of its artistic appeal?
If you’re interested in seeing her displays, you should definitely try and make it to one of her exhibitions. She has exhibitions from August to November in various locations in UK. If you want to purchase any of her jewelry you can do so at Not Just A Label.
