My accessories theme continues into this week with a post on one of my favorite jewelry designers: Justin Giunta, creator of Subversive by Justin Giunta and now Deviated by Justin Giunta.

I can’t exactly remember when my obsession with Justin Giunta’s work began. I am thinking sometime in the fall/winter of 2007, after his work began popping up in spreads in all of the fashion magazines.

Giunta’s aesthetic in his Subversive line spoke to me. First of all, it was statement jewelry before statement jewelry was trendy. And trendy or not, I will always be a lover of the statement necklace. I think I have been piling on the necklaces since birth.

Second, I always loved the “sunken-treasure” nature of his work:

Justin describes his signature Subversive piece as the “Sunken-treasure necklace…. It’s the formula for what we stand for as far as taking old things and putting them back together to make it look like you’ve sourced an entire jewelry box on your neck.”

And then there is the art historian in me who appreciates the comparisons that have been made between Giunta and Andy Warhol: that Giunta’s work has a certain anti-establishment quality. It is best described by Sara K. Eisen for the Gallery Atlantic: “Giunta’s baroque, highly-wrought pieces are meant to undermine the jewelry and fashion establishments, blurring distinctions between art and consumer culture, and between fine looking old things handpicked from the world’s rubble and the beautiful, new, and commercial chains that (literally) bind them. The raw materials are not intrinsically valuable. It’s the design.”

This description ties back to the name of his original line, Subversive. According to the dictionary, Subversion “refers to an attempt to overthrow structures of authority, including the state. It is an overturning or uprooting.”

The name Subversive implies a kind of jewelry revolution, “a mutiny against conventional definitions of what makes a piece priceless.”

Giunta: “In my work, I am always drawing parallels between art history and modern design to explore themes of accessible decadence and fine art…. The only difference between the two is where it is sold.”

Giunta was nominated for the CFDA for accessory design in 2008, but he lost to Philip Crangi. He was nominated again in 2009 and won.

In January of this year Giunta was named the Design Director of Jewelry at Tory Burch. His first line for her will be coming out later this year. I am interested to see how he will tailor his signature look to fit in with the Tory Burch preppy aesthetic.

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My very first piece of Justin Giunta jewelry was the Subversive necklace below. My mother actually found it for me on sale, just months before he was nominated for his first CFDA. We call it one of our greatest finds, as the price of his work went up exponentially after he was first nominated. It is very much indicative of the style of his original pieces.

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I just recently acquired my second Giunta piece (hence the inspiration for this post) and I am again in love. It is from Giunta’s latest line, Deviated by Justin Giunta, a lower priced version of Subversive (now that Subversive has gone considerably upscale). It has the “sunken treasure”, pretty, tangled mess aesthetic I am attracted to. Plus, it has pink rhinestones.

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 “I think signature pieces will always last; they’re collectible, and people are likely to invest in jewelry. You can wear it with jeans, or you can wear it with a couture gown. And when people are engaged by an amazing piece of sparkle around your neck, they are going to love you.” – Justin Giunta

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