Creepy Crawlies Go Lux In Japanese Jeweler Hirotaka’s Latest Collection

Perhaps more than any other sect of the fashion world, jewelry is divided into two camps: timeless luxury items and quirky, trendy pieces. The precious metals and gems of fine jewelry can appear stuffy and boring to the more eclectic-minded, while loyal followers of Tiffany & Co might turn up their noses at the wilder side of unpolished stones and poppy designs. It's a sad tale, and never the 'twain shall meet...until now! Thanks to Japanese fine jewelry line Hirotaka, polished materials take on whimsical new forms in the latest collection. The lookbook itself is as cool as the jewelry, covered in doodles by the designer himself, Hirotaka Inoue. The same cultish monsters and symbols jump out of the ink and into the motifs of the jewelry itself. Larger-than-life pendants resemble gilded slugs, and cartoonish lizards hang upside-down from a delicate chain. The collection also includes a fair share of simple gold bangles, and the evil-eye makes an appearance or two. If you're turned off by gold, you've nothing to fear—Hirotaka uses a deep, brushed version that takes on an almost bronze hue in the right light, and though some of the pieces do have a blinged-out feel, they're far from gaudy. The darkly comical necklaces, bracelets, and earrings breathe new, rarified air into a material that had grown tired and overly ubiquitous. So, go for the gold, and you're sure to come out on top!