Valérie Hangel

Bio

Valérie Hangel is a Swiss textile jewelry designer. She lives and works in Geneva.
After graduating as a graphic designer, Valérie first worked in communications for several years while also designing her own fashion creations. At that time, her drawings caught the attention of a Zurich agency, and this was the impetus she needed to take her career in a different direction, and she then studied fashion design. Shortly after, she launched her own brand, Valérie Hangel. She went on to participate in fashion competitions, organize solo exhibitions and open an haute couture workshop, as well as creating theater costumes.

During a trip to Asia, Valérie discovered Japanese silks. When she returned from Japan, she brought back kimono silk fragments and began making her first textile jewelry. In 2017, she opened a gallery in Carouge near Geneva, where she exhibited her own works. In 2023, she participated in the Parcours Bijoux triennial in Paris, where she presented a new collection made from tie silk and luxury vintage scarves. Her work was spotted by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, which offered her the opportunity to present her creations at the annual MAD Jewelry 2024 event.

Statement

During a trip to Japan, I was fascinated to discover the beauty of the silks used to make kimonos. When I returned to my studio, I began to experiment, changing the focus of motifs in a unique way, and the new and unsuspected visual interplays took my work to unexpected dimensions.

I recently extended my range to include vintage luxury cravats and scarves – precious textiles to feed my artistic curiosity. The delicate Japanese décors which influenced the Impressionists and the more graphic motifs of the cravats and scarves create a blend that is atypical and yet finds its full expression in the rhythm of the compositions and the work on the colors.

Like the essential T-shaped cut of the kimono, which is one of the preferred expressions of Japanese art, the incredibly simple form of turned wooden pearls or laser-cut reconstituted leather serves as the basis for the motifs and colors on the carefully selected silk fragments, whose symbolism never fails to inspire new stories in me. The combinations are infinite, and finding the right formula from among hundreds of different silks is a long process. Once the silk fragments have been used, repetition is forbidden – the aim is then to conjure up new tales awakened by other fabrics.

CV