Tucked furtively up a side street off Avenida Santa Fe is the mecca of South American jewellers. An Aladdin’s cave of regal gems and sumptuous showstoppers, Fahoma is an opium den for jewellery junkies craving righteous rocks.
Julio Toledo is the designer behind the Fahoma empire, which originated in Buenos Aires, and branched out to Madrid, Dubai and New York. A 36-year-old Cordoban-cum-porteño, he has been working for the brand for the past eight years, promoting his designs both in Argentina and abroad.
Toledo spends most of his time in the Buenos Aires branch of Fahoma when he isn’t travelling and finding inspiration for forthcoming collections, working from a vast studio workshop above the shop, where accessories-laden tables and wooden worktops are strewn with charcoal outlines for his next collection. The shop itself is like a Pandora’s box; with a simplistic black façade, elegant window displays and chic staff kitted out in the Fahoma armour.
Inside, large glass cabinets proffer collections of opulent jewellery, belts and bags that resemble objets d’art in a museum. When a gaggle of porteñas enter, Toledo opens a drawer brimming with multiple strands of coloured beads and Austrian crystals and produces Maharajah-style dressing cases bursting with 20s-esque jewel-encrusted clutch bags.
Toledo says he doesn’t adhere to fashions, modes, vogues or trends when working with his clients and his designs. The pieces and designs are in a world of their own – reminiscent of jewellery worn by Jackie O and Audrey Hepburn.
But there’s room for eclecticism.
When I meet him, Toledo is wearing a bold necklace bearing oddments that include skulls and monkey hair, which he tells me he designed for ‘the man who wants it all’.
Do you create your designs specifically for porteñas?
Essentially I don’t think I’ve ever really geared my designs and pieces towards the Argentine market. I always did what I felt like designing, without searching for approval in any specific area or market or clientele. I know what the European consumer is looking for and how that differs from the Argentine consumer and I’m very respectful of this and keep this in mind all the time when I pick the collections. I want people to see jewellery as a form of personal statement.
For the forthcoming winter collection, where did you draw your inspiration from?
I felt this need to mix warm textures with that sensation of used clothes and faded, washed colours; mixing timeless pieces like pearls, 1920s geometric stones, crystals and diamonds. The principal colours for the winter 2008 collection are black, greys and charcoals, dark blue, navy blue, royal blue, deep silver, metal combined with fresh water pearls in various shades. This collection has a gothic feel about it.
How did you start designing jewellery and accessories?
Actually I started by designing clothes, haute couture. What really drew me into this was the diversity of materials and the things that I could make, or rather the possibilities that I had, so I started to work with various ideas and I got hooked and started to evolve my lines and collections.
So you saw jewellery as a more pliable and malleable design point? Rather than designing for couture and ready-to-wear?
I always wanted to do haute couture, but I started seeing jewellery as one more possibility. I started to see how I could branch out and work with something else. The thing is, I have more affinity with jewellery and I found I could diversify and encounter several choices and adapt different lines to different styles to different sizes. It was a question of amplifying my possibilities and opening up to a wider creation.
And so far, what is your greatest and proudest achievement?
Every single day I see what I do as an achievement. Every time I finish a piece, I see it as a great achievement. And for me, I get great satisfaction from the women who enjoy wearing my pieces, or what my pieces bring out and awaken in each and every woman who wears them. I get satisfaction through their satisfaction. Every single piece has great significance and sentiment for me, because I work from the very start to the very end with every stone, so at no stage of designing or making the pieces do I find it monotonous or routine. Every single day is different for me – a new combination, a new length, or I stumble across a new design or form or shape.
For more information visit www.fahoma.com
How to work this bling:
All of Fahoma’s pieces have the ‘va-va voom’ factor and they are best worked with simple cuts and block colours. Heavily patterned fabrics (unless we are talking Missoni) makes an outfit too ‘busy’ and detracts from the vibrancy of the jewellery.
For Pinamar beachwear, team the Fahoma summer collection of red floral necklaces and marigold handbags with a cute black crochet bikini and a white kaftan. For Punta del Este party nights, get into the swing of it with a Zara gold sequin 60s mini dress and white flower crystal cut earrings.
Alternatively, strut through Palermo in a leopard print headscarf, wayfarer Ray Bans and Fahoma’s semi-precious turquoise and gold flower earrings.
For some nocturnal Buenos bling, match one of Toledo’s vibrant clutch bags, in royal navy or emerald green, with a pair high-waisted black trousers and a white long vest top. Accessorize this look with the winter collection’s fabulous cream and white semi-precious floral cut crystal necklace and black and white flower hoop earrings.
