River Island taps Dominic Jones for Design Forum

High-street favourite River Island has announced that it will be joining forces with jeweller Dominic Jones as part of their Design Forum initiative.

The collaboration marks the first time that the brand’s Design Forum collection will consist exclusively of accessories, of which there will be nine – including necklaces, earrings, a keyring and a phone case.

The range draws on Jones’s creative interest in the botanical world, taking inspiration from the Venus Fly Trap in particular. Blue bottle fly imagery and gunmetal tones, meanwhile, echo a quirky punk-chic sensibility.

Of his new range, the designer says that it is a “celebration of the beauty in the oddity of life, subverting the grotesque, and presenting them as the beautiful. The collection has a real sense of humour; pieces are fun and witty but also desirable and detailed.”

Jones, who trained as a jeweller at London’s Sir John Cass School of Art and Design, has won the NEWGEN award numerous times and joins a list of previous Design Forum collaborators that includes SIBLING, Jean Pierre Braganza and Zoe Jordan.

The Dom Jones x River Island Design Forum collection will officially launch at London Fashion Week this September, with a short film shown at the BFC’s Fashion Film event. The pieces will be available to buy in stores from September, with prices ranging from £20-£70.

Grace Cain