Leaving an international hub like Central Saint Martins mid-degree is no small decision, but it’s proven to be the right one for jeweller Kyle Hopkins. His new collection for SS13 is a retrograde journey to memories past. We’ve nabbed the VHS showcasing the best of his collection exclusively for HERO.

Why did you go with the VHS aesthetic? What does it say about your brand?

We used an old VHS camcorder for the video and the lookbook shoot for two reasons, specifically. The VHS pulls us back into yesterday. It reminds us of our memories. It’s very specific lo-fi appearance takes us back to the time in our lives when lo-fi was high-fi, and we as people were completely different. The glitches and imperfections we got in the video are one of the central focal points because of how our memories have glitches – we skip certain moments and amplify others – almost creatively creating our memories apart from the factual details of the moment. The collection aims to achieve the same effects; the emotive ability of any object to take us back to a moment or a person is incredible. The collection’s goal was to be a canvas for the wearer to imbue with their own moment. I like that, letting someone define their jewellery emotionally, catering towards a meaningful relationship with jewellery.

Is there any theme for your SS13 collection?

There are four concepts in SS13; the video pertains to Nickel and a Nail, the concept which drives this collection is the sentimentality endowed to familiar objects, and their unique ability to pull us right back into a meaningful moment. The idea comes from when I fell in love with a girl, and kinda stole one of her Kirby grips from her bed in the morning. I wore it in the pocket of my jeans for months after.

What one piece of this collection would you like to see everyone wearing?

Whatever piece stirs up this kind of emotional cartography is what I want to see. I would hate to see one individual piece become popularised because people are individuals with individual memories, and any one piece getting popular would mean I missed my mark, the collection isn’t doing its job. Another collection in SS13, the ¥€$ Collection, is the antithesis to this. It is about the theology of mass consumption. All of our work is derived from concept and ideas. We hope to provoke thought in this hyper consumerist society through a historically classist trade.