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"    Photo: Courtesy of The Webster   Delfina Delettrez was born into fashion royalty, but that doesn&amp;#039;t mean she&amp;#039;s not brilliant herself. Sure, the 25-year-old Fendi heiress has got a closet to rival Gwyneth&amp;#039;s, but her biggest obsession isn&amp;#039;t red carpets or fabulous parties\u2014it&amp;#039;s her own fusion of contemporary art and traditional craftsmanship. For years, Delettrez has studied metalwork, sculpture, and gemology, learning Italian smithing techniques alongside modern methods of jewelry production. She&amp;#039;s also kept archives of her visual obsessions, including human anatomy, Renaissance architecture, and bugs. The result is a range of eerily beautiful pieces sold at achingly cool boutiques like Opening Ceremony.  To celebrate her collection&amp;#039;s five-year anniversary, Delettrez created her own exhibit at the Design Miami art fair, with corresponding earrings available only at The Webster in Miami. Delettrez spoke to ELLE.com about her new developments.    ELLE: Many designers consider themselves artists, but few actually exhibit their pieces at an art fair. Why did you go that route? Delfina Delettrez: Well, the first step was actually when the Antonella Villanova gallery approached me! But I think the moment when Antonella started believing in my work was when she saw it all out on display. With the jewelry, you have to see it in front of you. Pictures aren&amp;#039;t satisfying all the time. She told me she could feel the real power of the pieces and she decided to propose me to Design Miami. ELLE: Usually, your work is presented in a fashion context\u2014yes, it&amp;#039;s on display, but in a magazine or at a store, surrounded clothes. Do you think your pieces change when you put them in a gallery? DD: I think you end up looking at the details more. This exhibit is a more static and more clean way of looking at the jewelry. For the Design Miami exhibit, I put a giant magnifying glass above each piece, because I want you to see the traditional [metalworking] techniques on each piece. I love the contrast of untraditional shapes and traditional ways of setting stones and using metals\u2014it&amp;#039;s really like making couture! ELLE: What was your biggest challenge with this project? DD: My fear was, &amp;#039;Oh my God, this exhibit will feel so cold, so unfeeling.&amp;#039; Jewelry is alive; it has movement, it changes your appearance and your mood a lot; you need to wear it; you need to touch it. And when I started preparing for this exhibit in July, I was like, &amp;#039;I don&amp;#039;t want to do an ascetic kind of thing. I want it to feel human. How can we do that, even if you can&amp;#039;t pick up the jewelry and try it on?&amp;#039; ELLE: What&amp;#039;s the first time you remember falling in love with jewelry? DD: Oh my God! Every time I used to stare at my mother, and she wears the most amazing jewelry. The ones that really shocked me were brooches with these two gold wings\u2014so contemporary, so clean, so elegant, and I loved the fact that you could play with them. You could even wear them as earrings or clip them to another necklace. I loved the multifunction. Put them on jeans, put them on a belt or a purse\u2014I was so interested in finding a second functionality of the object. These brooches were white gold with opals. They were very simple, but that&amp;#039;s what attracted me to them. ELLE: Your collection of lip-shaped rings are so popular, especially the red ones. Are you a red lipstick junkie? DD: I love this very orange lipstick from Chanel, and I&amp;#039;m also into really brown-red lipsticks, from Shu Uemura. So no, those red lips in my collection aren&amp;#039;t based on my own! Maybe the black lips are inspired by me, though. I would definitely wear a black lipstick! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/accessories/news/a16792/delfina-delettrez-interview/>