Betony Vernon

Betony Vernon

Betony Vernon portrait by Lara Giliberto (2012)
Born August 15, 1968
Tazewell, Virginia
Residence Paris, France
Nationality American, Italian
Education Virginia Commonwealth University, Domus Academy
Occupation designer,writer
Known for jewelry design
Labels B.V. Betony Vernon,Paradise Found

Betony Vernon is jewelry designer who lives and works in Milan and Paris. She is known for jewellery based on eroticism and sexual ceremony.

Biography

Born on August 15, 1968 in Tazewell, Virginia, she is the third of four daughters. Her mother was a British civil rights activist/art historian Ann Dearsley Vernon and her father was an American pilot/inventor. In 1990 she graduated Cum Laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Art History and a double minor in Religious Studies and Goldsmithing.

Career

After graduation, Vernon moved to Florence, Italy to direct the metalsmithing program at Fuji Studio Art Workshop, and open her atelier where she created one-of-a-kind objects for the concept store Luisa Via Roma. She also worked as an actor and a fashion model but abandoned these potential careers in order to refine her jewelry-making skills with Florentine masters of repoussé, mosaic, and engraving and jewelry fabrication.

After moving to Milan she earned a master’s degree in Industrial Design from Domus Academy. At the same time she founded “Atelier B.V.”, her present-day studio. In 1995 and 1998 she designed for Pampaloni, a Florentine silversmith. During that time, she was also appointed as design director for the Italian interior design firm Fornasetti. She continues to develop a jewelry line that respects the artistic matrix of the whimsical style of Piero Fornasetti.

She has collaborated with several fashion designers, including Missoni, Alain Tondowski, Gianfranco Ferré and Jean-Paul Gaultier.[1] In 2006 she designed a neckpiece for Swarovski’s Runway Rocks project that was later used by Lady Gaga for her “Paparazzi” video.[2] She has held design seminars at both the European Institute of Design and Domus Academy in Milan, Italy. Her work has been featured in a number of international exhibitions, from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to the Triennale in Milan and the Museum of Sex in New York City.

In 2006 she worked with Los Angeles based photographer Jeff Burton in the museum house of Carlo Molino in Turin, Italy. In 2008 she made “L’Envol”, a short video for SHOWstudio and her first collaboration with Nick Knight. At the request of MTV Italy, Betony wrote, starred in, and co-produced “The Boudoir”. These seven episodes aired on Love Line, a show that delivered sexual information to young people. She is one of 20 women interviewed by Virginie Despentes for her a pro-sex documentary “Mutantes”, released in 2010. In November 2012 Vernon designed the "Origin" chair and the "Origin" monument to be exhibited at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan in the context of the exhibition "KAMA - Sex & Design" (Dec 4th, 2012 - March 10, 2013.)[3] The culmination of over 20 years of design work, research, and personal exploration is her book “The Boudoir Bible – The Unhibited Sex Guide for Today”, published in February 2013.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ Alex Fury (2009)
  2. ↑ LadyGagaVEVO 2009
  3. ↑ Triennale di Milano 2012
  4. ↑ Brenda Strohmaier 2013

References

External links

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