Indian designer’s glass jewellery at the New York Fashion Week

Designer Hasna Sal designed jewellery for Australian designer Daniel Alexander

Glass defines Hasna Sal’s creativity, and fuels it too. Her oeuvre includes sculptures, jewellery, and functional/aesthetic creations, all made mostly of glass. The Kansas-based glass artist, who belongs to Kochi, recently designed glass jewellery to go with a collection of garments by Australian designer Daniel Alexander at the recently-concluded New York Fashion Week (NYFW), her second such outing. Last year she worked with designer Archana Kochar, creating jewellery for her Warli-inspired collection. Next year, in what will be her third outing, she intends to present solo with her business partner Dr. Harish Panicker. Excerpts from an email interview.

Something about the collection, this time.

The theme is ‘wearable sculpture’. Sculpture should be fluid; it does not have to conform to a category. It can be worn as an ornament; it can be functional, and it can be a decorative piece for the house. To that extent, I’ve created wearable pieces of art that can be a neck-piece, and also an embellishment for the coffee table. This collection includes neck-pieces, earrings, hats and a crown. There were 16 sculptures presented with the couture.

Did the designer give you a brief?

The couture designer wanted it in the theme of Hugh Jackman’s

The Greatest Showman . So I tried to keep it consistent with the colour and scale of the movie.

The pieces look chunkier, larger and heavier. Without the delicacy one expects of glass.

They are statement pieces; meant to convey confidence, poise, elegance and sophistication. They are meant to proclaim — ‘I have arrived’. They look heavy but they are not. The models were very comfortable wearing them. In fact they wore them for hours before the show. Its our task, as designers, to achieve the notion of depth and mass while carefully conforming to the datum of the frame.

Something about the piece you designed for Saif Khan.

I designed, and created, an equine bracelet with Venetian glass as the primary large sculpture bead, and guinea feathers laminated over Nangka wood beads as the ancillary beads. The Pataudi family is into horses so I thought this will be special for him. He absolutely loved it. He said he will let his son Taimur inherit it when he grows up. I am starting my men’s line, which will include bracelets, pendants, arm cuffs and rings for men.