Treasure Trove

Twenty-eight year old Eugenie Niarchos runs with a circle of girlfriends whose names read Missoni, Casiraghi, and Santo Domingo, so it’s no surprise she happens to be the granddaughter of billionaire Stavros Niarchos. The Greek shipping heiress launched her own line of jewelry, Venyx, in Paris in 2013, having studied at the Gemological Institute of America, which she followed up with a stint at Christie’s Fine Jewelry Department in New York. Niarchos joins a growing list of fashionable young women bringing an avant-garde edge to fine jewelry’s luxury lineage. She got an initial taste for designing from a successful collaboration with friend and Repossi creative director Gaia Repossi, along with two capsule collections for Azzaro.

As Niarchos is inspired by antique jewelry, science fiction, nature and retro-futurism, Venyx- the name is a combination of Venus and Onyx- was conceived as a planet, a blend of landscapes, powerful phenomena, and fascinating living creatures. The line features tortoiseshells and exotic skins of mambas, gators and more, artfully crafted in the UK using 18-karat gold, and each piece is handset with precious stones like diamonds, rubies, and multicolored sapphires. Her clean lines rendered in gold and diamonds evoke the sculptural, yet miniature aspects of jewelry Niarchos loves. Having created stunning and chic pieces like zigzagging bracelets reminiscent of lightening, earmuffs evoking the aurora borealis, pendants incorporating meteorite fragments and more, Venyx appeals to the ultimate style arbiter….not just Niarchos’ socialite friends. www.venyxworld.com