STORY KIM LEE Unconventional, perhaps more so for a Japanese woman, Shoko Takabe was already designing when she was eight. Largely self-taught, she started out in a regular job just so she could finish work at 5 o’clock and start drawing and designing jewellery.
“WHEN I was eight years old, I had a project in school. You had to draw yourself when you were older… to draw your dream. I knew I would (grow up to) be a jewellery designer,” said Shoko Takabe. Her voice was gentle and dreamy with the memory. A strand of her straight hair, a fashionable shade of golden brown, fell over her mascara-coated lashes and rich red lips. There was little other makeup.
That childhood drawing however, likely bore little resemblance to the pared-down elegance she exuded in a black, figure-hugging dress when we met at the 14th International Jewellery Tokyo Exhibition 2003. The darkness of the finely knit fabric was the perfect canvas to set off one of her creations, a necklace featuring a gilded cluster of leaves and gold Southsea pearls.
Takabe is the first to admit that her glamour at this meeting is nothing like her normal self. Her everyday ‘uniform’ at the drawing board is a pair of canine-rip resistant jeans and a functional tee-shirt, thanks, she says, “to my baby dog”, her attention-loving, year-old miniature dashchund.
In spite of this domestic setting, 38-year-old Takabe turns out some of the best-selling designs for Riz Jewelry, a ten-year-old company and pearl specialist that has earned itself an honourable reputation in Japan’s growing and competitive jewellery industry. Her work has already caught the attention of some young and rising Japanese jewellery designers, who look toward the collections at Riz for inspiration.
Much of Takabe’s work lies in the Lac Rose and Basic lines. The former is a collectors’ range of jewellery characterised by the elegance of natural forms with bouquets of gold leaves and pearls. Basic features updated ways with classic designs for jewellery that can be worn anytime, anywhere, by anyone. Apart from these two ranges, Takabe has begun to design for New Fancy, a range of diamond jewellery. “I wanted to project something new but not showy, and used different materials – like fancy diamonds.” From this came the name of the new line.
It sounds unconventional, perhaps more so for a Japanese woman. But this is a person who was already designing when she was eight. It may have had something to do with the fact that she was born in Yamanashi prefecture, an area famous for the jewellery industry, or that her parents had a small jewellery company where father was craftsman and designer, and mother handled marketing and administration. “I helped sometimes with the business but it was pro bono. I never got any money from them. I wanted to do something more exciting.”
She did manage to turn some of her early designs into jewellery. Friends and teachers would remark on her interest and talent. Sounding exasperated, Takabe confessed she believed, “They just want to get something from me!” As an example, she tells: “My mom asked to (borrow) my necklace, made by me. (It) was a cross with gold and diamonds – and she sold it to her customer!” said Takabe, still sounding stunned by the experience. “Everybody wants something from me,” she says, again, her voice carrying conflicting traces of pride and despair. “When I wear a piece, they say ‘I want that!’ I say, ‘OK, I make for you.’ ‘No, no, no I want that!’ So, OK...” Her hands make as if to slip the jewellery piece off and surrender it.
She insists much of her work is self-taught. Takabe did attempt to hone her instincts for design by spending a year at a jewellery design school in Tokyo when she was 18. But “I thought it was boring and I was wasting time – and money! School is fun, but would you want to go to a school to draw sketches? I wanted to (freelance) or join a jewellery company and learn stuff from them. And at the same time get paid. (But) you needed to be known by people that you are good.”
She soon started work at a metal and jewellery tools company. “Then I could finish work at 5 o’clock and start drawing and designing jewellery.” She didn’t need to publicise her skills. People began to notice her work and remark on her talent. “I didn’t even need to speak about myself!” said Takabe, sounding surprised. At this time, a couple of companies approached her to design for them. It was also then that her dad developed cancer and Takabe needed to take care of her family and parents’ company. To ease things, she gave up her freedom to become a full time employee at Amemiya, a big jewellery company in Japan, for a year and a half. “It was good,” she said of the experience. “And then I met a guy and got married and moved to Tokyo.” Here she returned to being a contract jewellery designer for the same company before moving on to Riz.
Did she not get any advantage in the industry from her father? No, she says, except perhaps for “my genes.” Possibly the best advice he ever gave her, however, was to go to Europe. Takabe stayed in Paris a couple of months and learned French. She also discovered its culture and what it was “to be inspired!”
She will not admit to any particular style, but aims for something simple but interesting that people can identify with and can be easy to wear. She also constantly experiments with new designs, saying matter-of-factly, “I am the one who inspires people, that is why I need my stuff to be exciting.” She will work with her clients’ requests, as she always has, whether it is a company or a friend. Personally, “I usually wear very simple jewellery. But every piece is made by hand. I never buy. I make or I order (a design to be made).” Sometimes she gets jewellery of super fancy semi-precious stones from friends in the trade, “but I can’t wear them!” she laments. “Everybody will be asking me, ‘Is this your design?’ ”
It’s not a complaint though. “I’m very happy,” she says, and with a contented shrug, “This is my life!” S
