Isolation Insights: Q&A with Jewellery Designer Saskia Diez

New to Couverture, we caught up with jewellery designer Saskia Diez to chat about why she started her eponymous jewellery line and how she's maintained a positive headspace whilst in lockdown in Munich...

Couverture: What was the concept behind Saskia Diez when you first started the brand?
Saskia Diez: I wanted to create jewelry that someone like me would wear which didn’t exist at that time I started my label.

C: What are the new big trends you’re seeing for next season?
SD: Things slowed down a bit, I think it’s mainly continuing in the direction things already developed: the vanishing of a definition of what jewellery for women or men means. Chains are still there, massively. Same for earcuffs, hoops and hair accessories.

C: Looking forward, what is next in the pipeline we can get excited about for Saskia Diez?
SD: Working on a travel jewelry case with the brand Tsatsas. In June we're launching a fun capsule collection with the men’s bran Lazoschmidl. We also made chains to hang your face masks on and have additionally made masks. Those [sorts of] chains did not exist until now. We produce them every day, they sell out every day.

C: How are you adapting to now working from home?
SD: I have always worked from home, I love my work and enjoy it so there is no real separation between work life and freetime. I miss my assistant but she’s out on maternity leave so she wouldn’t be here anyway. Communication sometimes gets complicated over distance.

C: How are you maintaining a positive headspace throughout everything going on?
SD: Imagination and hobbies - I do yoga and I’ve been teaching myself to play piano.

C: What is your go-to outfit to work in around the house?
SD: In the first few weeks I mainly wore yoga pants and sweatshirts. But then the weather turned very nice sunny and now I dress in spring colours and dresses, just because I am in the mood for it.

C: What are you listening to whilst working through the lockdown?
SD: Lots of classical piano; Igor Levit playing Beethoven and Malakoff Kowalski. Both of them are dear friends of mine.

C: More time at home means more cooking - which recipes have you been trying out?
SD: Bigoli in Salsa is a great one, it is a real soul food and you only need onions, anchovies, thick spaghetti and half a glass of white wine. A great recipe, as you hardly need to buy any groceries.

C: What tv / films have you been enjoying whilst at home?
SD: I watched Freud and Unorthodox. But I am missing going to the movies.

C: How have things changed in your local area since the lockdown came into place?
SD: Slowly things start to reopen, restaurants, shops, but cinemas, yoga studios etc. are still closed. There are long queues in front of ice cream parlors and coffee shops because you can enter only one by one and have to line up distanced. When the sun shines, people are pretty friendly. It is also new seeing people wearing masks - that was pretty unusual until recently.