November 3, 2025 |
Avgvst is the kind of jewellery brand that makes quiet pieces for people who don’t need to shout. Founded in 2013 by former ad-agency creative director Natalia Bryantseva and born in Berlin, it’s built a reputation for jewellery that’s sculptural, clever and a little bit moody – all clean lines and subtle details. For its latest collection, the brand has teamed up with Isa Kauffman – the designer behind work for Prada, Bottega Veneta and the now defunct Y/Project – on a new jewellery line that feels like a meeting point between fashion and fine art.
Called Eclipse, the collection reimagines the solar event as something you can wear: multi-surfaced rings, orbit chokers and glassy, elliptical pieces that shift with the light. The shapes are smooth and technical, but there’s something quietly emotional about them too – that feeling of watching the sky change.
A demi-fine collection, Eclipse plays with the language of astronomy and parabolic geometry – as well as Shiro Takatani’s performance work Tangent – without ever feeling cold. Instead, it’s about balance – sharp edges meeting soft curves, metal sitting next to rock crystal and pieces that feel equally good on bare skin or layered over a shirt collar. Each one, as Bryantseva puts it, is a “fragment of an eclipse” – a reminder of how something fleeting can still feel permanent.
Known for its simple lines, understated luxury and Berlin cool, Avgvst continues to find beauty in the intangible, and bring its to life. Here, we speak to Bryantseva about working with Kauffman, what inspired Eclipse and the significance of the brand’s signature usage of rock crystal.
On The Birth Of Avgvst
I honestly didn’t imagine [that Avgvst would transform into what it is today]. I started because I wanted to make something real with my hands, after years of working in advertising. The first clients were friends, then friends of friends. I’m still surprised at what it has become – a team, a community, stores in different cities. Style-wise, Avgvst has stayed minimal, but it has grown more confident. Early pieces were quieter; now there’s more boldness, more willingness to take up space.
On The Eclipse Collection
An eclipse is a fleeting, elusive phenomenon – light passing into shadow and back again. We tried to capture it in small, tangible fragments: a cabochon of rock crystal over a silver plate, or the way a polished curve of metal casts light onto skin. They are like tiny echoes of something vast and almost immaterial.
[The story I hope eclipse tells is that] we live in a moment of collective fear of looking into the future. Humanity is experiencing an eclipse of meanings, ideals, priorities, even life goals. One way I see to resist this madness is a desperate search for beauty. For me, it’s important that our jewellery – and the conversations we build around it – capture this exact momentum we are living through.
On Working With Isa Kauffman
Isa thinks about jewellery differently from us. She understands how an accessory creates an impression and can shift an entire look. At Avgvst we focus on wearability and pieces you can live in every day. Isa brought this strong “fashion statement” angle, but the designs are still grounded and practical. Her perspective helped us find that balance where jewellery is both intimate and visible, quiet and striking.
[My favourite thing about collaborating with her is] her clarity. Isa knows exactly what she wants a piece to do in terms of visual impact, but she’s also open and playful in the process. Working with her felt like a real dialogue – we each brought our strengths and built on each other. And you know, I think Russians and Brazilians have a lot in common: the same directness and openness, only one side is always a little melancholic, and the other endlessly optimistic. That combination was a perfect creative cocktail.
On What Inspires Avgvst
Berlin is a city of understatement. It doesn’t dress itself up, but it has depth and history underneath. That duality – minimalist on the surface, full of contradictions underneath – informs how I think about design. Avgvst jewellery is pared-back, but it’s never empty; there’s always a hidden layer of meaning or emotion.
[I draw most of my inspiration] from phenomena rather than objects. Light, shadow, memory, silence. Sometimes it’s a fold of a handbag, an antique clasp, or just the way a shadow falls on a wall. I’m less interested in referencing other jewellery or fashion and more in translating intangible experiences into form.
On The Creative Process
The initial spark can come from anywhere – an antique piece at a flea market, a fold in a bag, a vintage clasp, a sculpture, or even just a shadow. That’s the most magical part. From there, I work with our design director on sketches and quick prototypes made out of wire or clay. But the real exploration happens in material – we experiment with stone cuts, with how light moves over a curve of silver. Prototypes are 3D-printed, then cast in metal, worn, tested, adjusted. It’s a slow, iterative process that always returns to the same question: “would I wear this, would I live with this piece?”
On The Appeal Of Collaborating
Honestly, the word “collaboration” has been worn out – it’s often just audience-swapping now, almost like a kind of creative prostitution. That’s not what excites me. I prefer to think of it as “co-creation”. We only work with people we’ve genuinely befriended. Their audience doesn’t matter, exposure doesn’t matter – we just talk, laugh and invent something together. That’s where the real magic is.
On Avgvst’s Signature Use of Rock Crystal
[Rock crystal is so central to Avgvst’s identity] because it’s paradoxical: both transparent and opaque, fragile and strong, timeless and very modern. It doesn’t shout. It just quietly refracts light, and in doing so it transforms. We usually cut it smooth, into cabochons. That way it doesn’t sparkle or seduce – it simply stays calm and quiet, like a silent observer by your side.
On The Future Of Avgvst
To keep building slowly and meaningfully. I don’t want Avgvst to become louder or trend-driven. I want it to remain authentic, to keep creating pieces people form real attachments to. My dream is that people around the world will recognise each other by Avgvst jewellery and think: “oh, this is someone interesting, I want to know them better.”
Photography courtesy of Avgvst.
