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Fawaz Gruosi, founder of de Grisogono shares his insatiable desire to create without constraints

Creativity, Excellence, Glamour

Fawaz gruosi estimates that he has taken in about three months of vacation out of the 21 years of running de Grisogono. Living out of suitcases and hotel rooms, Gruosi lives and breathes designing and

promoting his brand. “I am not mad. I am just terribly in love with my work. My passion is coming up with new projects and designs. This is my life,” Gruosi professes during a preview of his collections at Mandarin Oriental Hotel, KL.

With a keen and genuine interest in gemstones, Gruosi says, “I hate that people segregate stones into precious and semi-precious. To me, whatever Mother Earth gives us is precious.” Never settling for the ordinary, Gruosi pushes boundaries by introducing new ideas and materials. He single-handedly elevated the status and value of black diamonds when he unveiled an entire collection of carbonado jewellery in 1996. Since then, the de Grisogono brand has become synonymous with daring and dynamic aesthetics. “I design for the sensual woman; bold and exciting. Jewellery is like fashion. You buy clothes to show off to your friends, boyfriend or husband. You do the same with jewellery,” explains Gruosi.

Gruosi’s latest conception, the Crazy Skull, demonstrates de Grisogono’s dual expertise in watchmaking and jewellery and epitomises its spirit for innovation. The creation required almost a year of research and development;

BOLD INNOVATION Fawaz Gruosi’s creations are attention-grabbing and dynamic with a sense of playfulness

nine months of which were dedicated to create the bespoke mouth mechanism that reveals a precious tongue when triggered.

Having put more emphasis on the production of

timepieces in the past decade, Gruosi says the brand will be giving equal prominence to both jewellery and watchmaking by 2018. In the immediate future, de Grisogono will unveil a men’s watch at Baselworld 2015.

Despite the many successes and recognition earned for his past jewellery collections, Gruosi confesses that he does not currently have an idea for his next design, “I am always excited not for what I have done, but for what is in my mind. So far I have nothing but the moment I do, it will go into the workshop immediately. One can never imagine what de Grisogono’s next step will be and that is the beauty of this brand.” W

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SPOTLIGHT

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