Victoria Beckham Buys Jewelery from Solange Azagury-Partridge, and So Should You

Solange Azagury-Partridge, Londoner and self-proclaimed control freak, taught herself about jewelry design and turned a mere hobby into a luxury brand. Over the last 20 years, she’s created some of the most innovative and sought-after jewelry, with clients like Victoria Beckham stopping by her Notting Hill boutique. She talks to BlackBook about the opening of her New York store, why you should buy diamonds when you can't pay your mortgage, and designing her own engagement ring.

Tell me about your outlook on jewelry design. Obviously you’ve been doing it for some time.
I’m still interested in it, and I still love doing it. But every direction I do, I slightly try to make it quite hard for myself in that I always want to try and do something a bit different from what I’ve done before. I want to challenge myself in producing things that may be a bit more difficult to produce. It seems like that’s how I maintain my interest in things.

I read somewhere that you do a lot of work from bed. Does that have an impact on what sort of work you do?
No, I mean, I just kind of make phone calls, work on my computer, read—I do everything from my bed. All my ideas come to me as I spend such a large proportion of time there. It’s inevitable that my ideas and my work happen there as well.

Given with what’s going on with the economy, don’t you find that jewelry, and especially diamond-encrusted pieces, are a bit extravagant?
Well listen, I mean, what’s happened in the world has only happened recently, and it’s only happened in the Western world. I don’t really think about what’s going on. I suppose I just do what I do, and that’s it.

With your jewelry line, you use a lot of precious stones and very expensive material. Do you ever see yourself designing a more affordable line?
I did a collection for H&M a few years back, which was great fun. And I liked having it accessible to more people. And maybe one day I will. I’d love it. It’s just a different kind of set-up, it’s a different kind of production. I would have to make a concerted decision to do that. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, it’s just not the discipline I’m working in.

You had done some work with Swarovski on the grapes and that beautiful crystal chandelier. Will you be working with them again?
Not for the time being. But the walls at my shop are covered in Swarovski crystals, and they’re going to be helping me with my New York shop as well.

How do you feel about coming over to the States and opening up a store here?
Very excited. I love New York and I’ve got lots of lovely American clients.

The first piece of jewelry you designed was your own engagement ring. A lot of little girls grow up dreaming of that perfect engagement ring and being surprised by it. Did it sort of ruin the surprise for you to know what your own ring would look like before being presented it by your fiancé?
Well obviously there is that element. But a lot of guys come into my shop these days who want to get an engagement ring for their girlfriends, they very often give them a kind of starter ring – like a mini ring of intention. And then get them to come in and choose it themselves, because they just want the woman to be happy with what they got. Unless you go the very traditional route, I don’t know. And I’m a bit of a control freak, so it was very nice to be able to design my own ring.

What does it look like?
It’s a big kind of band of gold with an uncut diamond in it.

There have been photos of Victoria Beckham walking out of your shop in Notting Hill. Is there any one person in particular who you’d like to have wear your jewelry?
Oh God, I don’t know. I mean, I’ve got some incredibly beautiful, fabulous women and actresses, people in the public eye who wear my jewelry as it is. They’re all pretty gorgeous and amazing and iconic. But the Queen of England would be nice.

I just read that now she’s started recycling outfits when she goes on trips to save a little.
Yeah, but her jewelry is her jewelry. She doesn’t recycle on that, I can tell you.

When is the store going to open on Madison?
Probably not until February.

And tell me a little bit about the gallery exhibit you’ve done.
Well it’s at the Sebastian + Barquet gallery in Chelsea, and it’s an exhibition of jewelry and objects of art inspired by jewelry. And I did a diamond and gold chandelier which actually was a piece I’ve been dreaming of for years, and Ramis Barquet said he would map a show for me. So it was wonderful. It was an exciting opportunity for me. You should go to the gallery if you find yourself down there, it’s really quite nice.