The Light and Dark of it - Chrishabana S/S 2012

You ever get this strangely settled feeling walking by an old church.  Maybe it has huge stained glass windows and Gothic cathedral arched wooden doors.  Possibly a freakishly tall steeple extends into the sky while the fading old architecture calls to mind a diamond in the rough in a sea of repetitive tenements and model homes for the Jones'.

Then at the same time, sometimes within the same breath, do you get eerily creeped out by that same religious institution.  Called to mind could be the skulking nun staring out from a small crack in the stained glass or the very eyes of the apostles depicted in glass staring down in seeming judgement.  Perhaps that once beautiful steeple in the flash of your lash now resembles a haunted spire or the kind of secluded space where something you don't want to unleash lives.

The beauty and the macabre have always danced a close and sweaty tango.  There's something the human mind wants to test, to discover, to somewhat experience and although we might be squeamish, when the fancy quickly becomes the frightful many of us seldom turn away.  Some may say its the desire to see beauty and serenity in what's normally deemed forbidden and tumultuous all in an effort to become 'at one' or tolerant of all that the hope of life and the fear of death impresses upon us.

It's this pairing of the beautiful and the dark, the sacred and the outrageous, the 'apples of the beginning' with the 'oranges in the end' that make a line like CHRISHABANA so 'come hither'.  This jewelry line started in 2004 by Mr. Habana is a walk through taking the beautiful genre of jewelry and cheekily pairing it with the mixed ideas of religion, history, art and cultural morays for outcomes that play upon our accepted and rejected symbols of right & wrong, life & death and assimilating versus standing alone.

For Spring 2012, CHRISHABANA takes on a fearless stance seemingly inspired by the anarchy, insane togetherness, radicalism and power struggles thought to perpetuate the end of the world.  Working in mediums of various wrought metals, fibers and woods, the collection remains an inspired brand that successfully pushes the accepted norms of jewelry design by creating an unregulated voice of existence, acceptance and beauty for humans to adorn themselves.  Check out the conceptual video below created with the label for S/S 2012 and experience CHRISHABANA at http://www.chrishabana.com/.


My Enemy SS 2012 by CHRISHABANA from jesu.viccete on Vimeo.