Feng Shui Jewelry for Inner Peace
“I’m half-Jewish and half-Christian, and for me, feng shui is a way to inner peace,” says jewelry designer Pamela Johananoff. The Chinese philosophy also is the theme of her latest collection and she’s positively in harmony and peace with that.
The Paris-based Johananoff, who started her feng shui line collection two years ago, is having her first ever truck show at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills Monday and Tuesday.
She began the collection when she bought some bronze coins from a street vendor in Macau and created a pendant--based on feng shui’s laws of nature incorporating the symbols of fire and water and other elements on a necklace for herself.
Johananoff, who grew up in Monroe, La., studied jewelry manufacturing at the Fashion Institute of Technology before moving to Paris 10 years ago, where she studied cooking and continued her jewelry-making.
She said in a telephone interview from Paris that soon friends were eager to buy it from her, which is why she created a commercial line that includes gold and silver rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and ying-and-yang cuff links (popular with men) in shapes of ancient Chinese coins and symbols inspired by feng shui.
Last year Los Angeles socialite and fund raiser Nancy Davis hosted a luncheon at her home where several pieces were snapped up. Earlier this year designer Donna Karan’s DKNY Madison Avenue store began selling several pieces from the collection. And celebs including Coolio, Natalie Cole and Jennifer Flavin Stallone are fans of Johananoff’s work.
“It’s a pure and simple line with some very strong pieces. It’s not Cartier, but it’s very chic,” Johananoff said of her 400 pieces, which range in price from $95 for a sterling silver key chain to an $18,000 18-carat diamond gold necklace.
