Compiled by DEIRDRE McQUILLAN
Ring the changes
A lanyard is a word for a short rope securing something, and it is most commonly used in sailing. For next spring, as part of its menswear collection, Givenchy has designed a rather special lanyard for a key ring; it will be the company’s signature motif for the new collection. Woven in nylon jacquard with a Givenchy logo, it features a snap hook closure system. This is an extension of the trademarked Obsedia hardware concept, which is an industrial-style buckle that is normally used on its bags, jewellery and belts, and it has been reworked as a key ring. In white, aqua or khaki, the keyring lanyard (€110) will be in Givenchy stores from February and will also be available from mrporter.com
On the money gift
A limited edition of 200 sets of cufflinks composed of 1928 Irish threepenny bits has been launched by the Irish company Birthday Cufflinks. 1928 was the year Ireland made its own currency when the chairman of the Irish coin committee was the poet WB Yeats, who supervised the selection of images for the coinage that would reflect the spirit of Ireland. They were of native wild and domestic animals with symbolic resonance. The hare was on the threepenny bit, the hen and chickens on the penny, the salmon on the two shillings bit, and the horse on the two and sixpence, with a pig and piglets on the halfpenny. The birthday hare cufflinks, which cost €124, are imprinted with the letters Saorstát Éireann, Irish Free State on the coins. See birthdaycufflinks.ie.
Jewels for the boys
Lee Harding and Sé O’Donoghue are two Irish goldsmiths behind Da Capo, a jewellery business based in the Tower Design Centre in Pearse Street, Dublin. They have had some interesting and unusual commissions recently, including making two sets of buttons – in white gold with black diamonds – for a man’s dress shirt for black tie events (above), in effect a modern elevation of the old-fashioned dress stud. They’ve also made some zany cufflinks fashioned like stormtrooper helmets from Star Wars and a pair of Pop Art cufflinks in silver and gold that when not in use can be hung on the wall like an artwork. See dacapo.ie.
Links to the past at Dalvey
The Scottish company Dalvey uses an old engraving technique called guilloche, rarely used these days, to create a repetitive pattern of great delicacy and precision on a pair of cufflinks from its current range of men’s accessories. The inspiration for these snap cufflinks comes from a form popular in the early 1900s but hardly seen since the 1930s. These ones cost €110 from the Dalvey flagship store on Grafton Street, Dublin 2. Less expensive are its popular lapis lazuli “admiralty” cufflinks for €65 and eclipse cufflinks in red onyx for €55.
