Viren Bhagat’s jewelry journey began in the noisy swarm of a produce market in Mumbai, India.
When he was a child, “they would send me to the vegetable market to buy all kinds of green vegetables,” said Mr. Bhagat, a fourth-generation jeweler who is widely considered to be among the foremost gem artists in the world.
On his return from the market, he would be tasked with sorting the produce according to hue, an exercise that taught him about color. “It’s incredible how many different shades of green there were!” he said. “Then this gentleman would come with a little stick and point out which were in the wrong pile. And that’s how I learned.”
Such humble lessons are a contrast with Mr. Bhagat’s reputation today, and that of the namesake business he runs in Mumbai with his sons, Varun and Jay.
Its precious yet understated one-of-a-kind jewels blend Indian jewelry tradition, Mughal architecture, European Art Deco design and innovative technique into a contemporary and recognizable aesthetic, and they have been exhibited in prestigious museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Production is limited to 40 to 60 pieces a year, in part because of the production precision that is required and also the limited availability of the gems that are used such as Kashmir sapphires, Burmese rubies repurposed from antique jewelry, and natural pearls.
“His work focuses on the precious, but there is a simplicity to it,” said Amin Jaffer, the director of the Al Thani Collection, the extensive art and jewelry collection owned by a member of Qatar’s royal family. “He uses a serene palette, usually only two colors, and he takes the inspiration of the past, such as classical Indian bangles or head ornament shapes from ancient or Mughal India and gives them a contemporary twist.”
For Mr. Jaffer, it is Mr. Bhagat’s unwavering approach to creation that makes him so unusual. “He’s an old-fashioned artist jeweler, the antithesis of the modern commercial industry,” he said.
“He’s the one designing his jewels, not someone on his team. He understands the stones. He’s never advertised. He’s operated in a single small shop in a city that is not an obvious one for the international jewelry client and he’s always limited his production. And yet he’s managed to attract the most discerning jewelry collectors in the world.”
Now, collectors in the West will have an easier journey to see Bhagat’s latest creations. After more than 35 years in business, the brand opened a by-appointment-only salon in the Mayfair neighborhood of London this month. “Opening in London will make it easier for our international clientele to access us and give us exposure to new collectors also,” said Mr. Bhagat, 67.
“It’s important because all of our interactions with our clients are in person,” Mr. Bhagat’s son Varun, 39, said. “We don’t sell jewelry by images or online.”
Everything about the new space focuses on creating an intimate and tranquil atmosphere. Housed in a 19th-century building, the salon has understated walls of pale ash, sleek Modernist furniture and Indian antiques, including a Mughal jali, or latticed sandstone screen.
There are no traditional jewelry vitrines. Instead, the walls are lined with framed drawings of jewelry designs and shelves that display the family’s extensive collection of books on architecture, Mughal design and art history. A large desk is positioned centrally so jewels may be presented, one by one, to clients. “To experience our jewelry fully,” Viren said, “you need to experience it with every sense — its light, its movement, even its tactility in your hand.”
The family has said that the international expansion will not change Bhagat’s production schedule. “We don’t count time and we don’t make compromises,” Varun said. “I would say our pieces on average take eight or nine months to make, and if at the end of that nine months we aren’t happy, we start again.”
They presented a pair of gold bracelets as an example. Deceptively simple with a barely visible hinge opening, the bracelets were inspired by the thin gold bangles that are the foundation of any Indian woman’s jewelry wardrobe. Mr. Bhagat first perfected the design on paper using a hard-lead pencil that he sharpens to a long point to create a precise scale drawing of the final jewel.
He described the sketch as an architectural blueprint that the craftsman, in one of Bhagat’s 10 workshops in Mumbai, then followed exactly, carving the bracelets by hand from blocks of solid gold.
Undulating stems, inspired by the cooling water channels found in Mughal palaces, were then cut into the bracelets’ surfaces. And within the curves of the stems were placed pairs of perfectly calibrated rose-cut diamonds, representing buds that extend beyond their metal settings and appear to float free.
“Just to physically make them took a year,” Mr. Bhagat said of the pair. “Collecting the stones, cutting them to the design and all that was a separate matter. Now, in that same amount of time, I could have easily made a grand necklace and made a lot more money, but we chose to make these bangles because they are extraordinary and they are very special.”
Mr. Bhagat and his two brothers (who are no longer involved) established the business in 1991. He had been inspired to design during a trip to Rome in which, he said, he fell in love with the creations in the windows of Bulgari’s Via Condotti store. As a result, his early designs had a European aesthetic, albeit in yellow gold and colored gems, rather than the heavy gold settings and irregularly cut stones of traditional Indian jewelry.
At the brand’s beginning, Mr. Bhagat’s insistence on creating unique pieces of his own design was a brave one, said Jay, 35. In India’s jewelry-obsessed culture, jewelers commonly make pieces that are tailored to the client’s order. “In India,” Jay said, “everything is made to measure, everything is customizable.”
It was a few years later, when Mr. Bhagat started traveling around India, that he realized his jewelry needed to pay homage to the country’s rich heritage but also move its story forward. “I come from a generation that wanted to show India as a modern India,” he said.
Rahul Kadakia, the international head of jewelry for Christie’s, said Bhagat’s achievements have been impressive considering that India initially was not associated with contemporary high jewelry. “He was the first Indian jeweler to be on the cover of Christie’s catalog, and that was 20 years ago,” he said.
“He appreciates his Indian roots and also the value of Art Deco design and architecture,” Mr. Kadakia said, noting that was what initially set Mr. Bhagat’s work apart and is what continues to make it distinctive. “He combines the two with such fluidity. The stones are floating in their settings, and all you see is the shining light of precious stones.”
For Mr. Bhagat and his sons, their ultimate aim is to heighten the wearer’s beauty, rather than overshadow it.
As an example, he presented a pair of ear clips, inspired by the stylized flowers found in Mughal art. Custom-cut rose-pink spinel cabochons formed the petals, their soft curves heightened by crowns of calibrated diamonds, and the flowers’ curling stems gently tapering to a point. The overall effect was one of femininity and balance.
For Mr. Bhagat, it is such harmony that drives him to keep creating.
“Many years ago at the Masterpiece fair in London, a man was looking at all the jewels very carefully. He then came up to me and said, ‘You must love women very much because your jewels are so feminine and beautiful,’” he said with a smile. “It was one of the best compliments I ever had.”
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