Avgvst is an independent jewellery brand in the demi-fine segment of Russia, founded in 2013 by Natalia Bryantseva. This sparkling label won the Swarovski Grand Prix-2013, and Natalia turned her (once) small jewellery business into a Russian hit. And now she has her eye’s set on providing the world with phenomenal jewels.
Avgvst was curated by people who refuse to wear traditional jewellery; all items are made to interact with the body rather than merely be worn. The design ideas of the brand are centred on the beauty of simplicity, usefulness, sustainability, and the rejection of grandiosity.
Clarity and grace are at the forefront of Avgvst, their designs fall elegantly on the body, taking unique and signature forms which are not seen from any other jewellery label.
They are well-known for their active citizenship, justice, and equality, as well as their interest in history and art from the past. As a brand, they are also deeply concerned about LGBTQ+ rights, as well as the rights of domestic violence victims in Russia. The brand donates its profits from a range of designs to human rights organizations and LGBTQ+ media in Russia.
In an interview with founder Natalia Bryantseva, Broke Magazine find out the pathway she took to become Russia’s biggest jewellery designer. We also find out about design inspirations and their next steps to conquer the world.
Tell me about your journey to now? What was your childhood like etc?
I grew up in a military town, my dad is a military man, my mom is a teacher. I vividly remember the moment when Elle magazine was launched in Russia in 1996. My mom saved money to buy it, and I read and reread it until the pages were falling out. When all I could see outside the window were the pine trees and military units, all these beautiful inaccessible things in Elle completely fascinated me. Foreign editorials, illustrations to the articles. Some of them I can still remember.
Since childhood I’ve always enjoyed doing something with my own hands: I made furniture for dolls, had skill with a hammer, my dad taught me how to use a jigsaw. I’ve developed an interest in jewellery as an adult. I got tired of working in a marketing agency, I wanted to create something with my own hands because when you work in marketing, you sell and create only an idea. And I wanted to create some kind of product, something that I could touch with my own hands. Only a few years later my passion for jewellery turned into a business.
The jewellery you create through Avgvst is sleek, stylish, and high quality, where did the idea for the brand and the products come from?
It all started as a hobby I mentioned above. I’ve been creating jewellery for myself for a year and a half, on weekends I went to the workshop, where I learned the craft from jewellers. My first clients were my friends and friends of friends, and then — two years after my first class in the workshop, where I had learned a lot — Russian Vogue wrote about the brand. After that, I hired my first assistant who processed orders on the website and so Avgvst began.
Congratulations on winning the Swarovski Grand Prix in 2013, can you tell us a bit about this?
During my training in the workshop, we’ve received an invitation to participate in a competition for jewellery designers. These invitations have been sent to all jewellery productions. The craftswoman who taught me invited me to participate. At that moment I laughed because I still was only able to work with a basic set of jewellery techniques. I came up with the idea of making a bracelet in the form of a branch with the green marquise-cut topaz that would imitate the buds. This bracelet won the jury over.
It’s also said that you turned your small jewellery business into the most sold independent jewellery brand in the demi-fine segment in Russia, how does this make you feel and how did you achieve this?
When you do your job every day, it is difficult to look at it impartially and assess the scale of the work done. Now I feel responsible to the team who has been with Avgvst for a long time, and to the customers, friends of the brand — all those who supported me. I don’t want to disappoint them. Everything we’ve achieved was possible only thanks to my almighty team.
Can you let us know about the rules/morals you stick by when creating your designs?
We always try to use timeless design as a foundation. We explore museum archives, erasing the signs of the times and adding irony or modern context. We call this design “simultaneously from the past and the future”. We must create jewellery not as a token of decoration, not to shock or follow trends. Our items are meant to make a statement, give the person an opportunity to speak up about what is important to him or her now. For example, a piece of jewellery can be a reminder of a past mistake for which you are grateful, or that you should be your only measure of comparison. It’s like a removable and meaningful tattoo.
I read that all the Avgvst pieces are designed not to be simply worn, but to interact with the body, how and why is this embedded in your brand?
You don’t want to take off a piece of jewellery filled with meaning. You choose to wear it every morning as an extension of your personality. This imposes requirements that the jewellery should be wearable, the earrings should not be too heavy, the fasteners should be strong so as not to get lost, and the rings should not interfere with the work. We try to make jewellery pieces that do not need an occasion to wear them, which you want to wear every day: they literally become an extension of the body – and often tell a story about the owner, make the statement you want to.
We especially love the heart ring which says Yes on one side and No on the other, where specifically did the inspiration for this design come from?
I also adore this ring. This is specifically an example of the creative method I described above. Similar flip rings, but with scarabs carved from stone, are ancient Egyptian jewellery. But in the 18th century, during active excavations, these rings received a new wave of popularity. Sometimes similar fasteners were used for seal rings to certify documents and letters. We took this U-shaped link principle with rotating elements on top but replaced the scarab for an elongated heart. We highlighted the ring’s reversibility by engraving Yes and No. In such a way, the ring is also meant to emphasize that you are independent in your choice and that when you say NO to something, sometimes it means saying YES to yourself.
What are the next steps for Avgvst, what should we look out for?
We are thinking seriously about opening our store outside of Russia and working not only with European and American retailers. Avgvst has already grown from just a jewellery brand — now it is a coffee shop, a tattoo parlour, and a piercing salon, a lifestyle brand. It is much more exciting to tell this story through your own space rather than representatives.