Jeweller Alan Crocetti discusses Sigmund Freud, the Queer identity and his new collection SUPERNOVA.
Alan Crocetti has always seen his creations as an extension of a much wider conversation about the intangible construction of identity and human emotion. The Brazilian-born designer has always been outspoken about his journey as a designer, often using his collections to express his feelings about the creative journey. With his new release, Crocetti drives the conversation deeper by drawing inspiration from Sigmund Freud and his famous works touching upon the construction of personality. In conversation with Perfect, the jewellery designer opens up about his discussions with his mother, and how his own identity struggles and understandings blended perfectly with Freud’s work and message, which brought him towards creating SUPERNOVA.
Perfect: How did you first discover the works of Sigmund Freud? Which parts of his work inspired you to create SUPERNOVA?
Alan Crocetti: My mom is a psychologist and we’ve always had psych-related conversations in our home. When she saw the collection, her first instinct was to relate the ID in the AC*ID pendant to Freud’s work. We had a chat about that and realised that the ID is represented in most of my creations as I’m all for the expression of raw instincts, desires, and passions. The *ID is the part of the mind in which unrestricted, natural, irrational feelings manifest themselves. This manifestation is in parts what SUPERNOVA is about.
Perfect: What is your usual process of inspiration for your collections?
Alan Crocetti: I don’t have a set process. My mood always interferes so much with my creative process from beginning to end. Whether I’m happy or melancholic they both count the same way. That’s how I end up having a strong relationship with all my pieces and they become so personal to me. I love sketching and fantasising about things that at first glance won’t even seem feasible. Then I move on to wax carving and 3D and get to play and analyse how the pieces come together.
Perfect: How do you see the connection between jewellery and human psychology?
Alan Crocetti: For me, there’s nothing more empowering than a sense of self-awareness and self-love. And in my experience, finding our armour helps us to stay in touch with those feelings. That’s how I see jewellery. The pieces ground those feelings in the material, with something we can see and touch. In that sense, I see jewellery as having a deep connection to human psychology.
Perfect: The term AC*ID (focusing on IDentity) takes centre stage within your collection. How did you incorporate your experience with your identity within jewellery?
Alan Crocetti: Apart from the beauty that is to celebrate people’s individualities and identities, the idea of sameness has never attracted me. I love when worlds mix or even collide, I also love how the unbalance of things inspires me and how everyone’s stories are valid when they come from a place of truth or intent of kindness. It is extremely important to showcase a variety of humans for 2 reasons. First, people live off of references and I wish I had more references in all medias when I was growing up as a gay kid. It wasn’t about seeing that I belonged to a “club / tribe” but that it was fine and right for me to belong amongst everyone else. Secondly, now more than ever, we’ve reached a point in western society where we can deconstruct what was seen as normal and create a more inclusive and diverse world.
Perfect: Do you use your collections as a form of expressing your personal story? What is the message you want to convey with your brand?
Alan Crocetti: Yes, in a way. All my references come from my life experiences. For example, in my collection “Flowers From Exile”, I addressed the censorship I feel as a person and a designer. As for my brand’s message, I see that in life and in fashion, tradition perpetuates oppression and stereotyping, which is incompatible with my way of approaching life and my work with jewellery. I don’t believe in creating boxes and suppressing individuals’ natural instincts and desires. So, in my view, I hope my pieces help disrupt ideas of sameness and celebrate individuality. Another important message is what I wanted to convey in my logo. The rose and the scorpion are both fragile and powerful creatures, and I’m fascinated by both. The rose is defenceless without its thorns and so is the scorpion without its stinger. I merged them in a way that you have very powerful beings stripped off their physical weapons. Sensitivity is a weapon I want my brand to be associated with.
Perfect: How have the last 2 years changed your creative process? What does it look like nowadays?
Alan Crocetti: The process hasn’t changed, what changed were my sources of inspiration. I see my most recent collections, CLIMAX, INFERNO, and SUPERNOVA, as responses to our global situation. Climax is about us seeing one another and understanding each other’s pain. For INFERNO, I wanted to represent our need to reignite our passions to flight through the difficulties we endured collectively and individually. And SUPERNOVA is about our need to re-engage and reimagine a post-pandemic world where we can be free and have fun.
Perfect: What are you most looking forward to in the next year both personally and creatively?
Alan Crocetti: It’s been a full year, and I’m looking forward to a proper holiday.
Perfect: What is something you are taking away from this past year?
Alan Crocetti: This year has been about change, exploring my surroundings, venturing myself into the unknown, and giving my all to reach my pinnacle. I see people talking about how 2020 and now 2021 were years that were meant to be “cancelled”. But, for me, these years were about transformation. As a global community, we were forced to look beyond ourselves and our needs, and become aware of much bigger, all-encompassing social, political, and structural problems. In my life, I had never seen so many people care so much about one another, about injustice and discrimination, climate change, and so on. It felt like, by witnessing loss and despair worldwide, people felt inclined to succumb to their instincts to feel with and for one another.
