JESSIE DIB — Ninu Nina Artist Interviews

Apr 8

Apr 8 JESSIE DIB

Music, Art, Culture, Fashion and Design, Creative People

Jessie Dib aka ‘DIB’ is a modern and bold New York-based, family owned, jewelry line that focuses on bringing bold sophistication to individualized pieces, what they like to call “wearable art”; all of which are inspired by minimalism and geometry. The brand was founded in 2012 by Jessie Dib and has been featured on America’s Next Top Model, Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Forbes and many more.

All metal jewelry is handmade by the father, the brother and Ms.Dib, the designer herself using various materials ranging from silver to copper, brass, acrylic, 3D printing and wood. They are characterized for mixing metals with acrylics and also known for their unisex collections which do not focus on gender and can be worn by anyone, it all depends on their style.

Greatest inspirations or influences?

Angles, geometry, textures, architecture and conscious messages

How does the design process work?

Our design concept is a team work effort where we all put a bit of our creativity into each piece. It usually starts with a mood, color story and material combination that I usually choose and send to my family, they tend to love what I send.

From there my dad will produce the metal pieces in Venezuela, each one is different and 100% handmade. We do not use molds so even if we cut a similar shape you never get the same piece. As he produces them he adds unique textures to them, what I like to call drawing on metals, Then my dad will send me a group of metal pieces that I will assemble and mount in different ways with different acrylic and precious metals.

My brother, in California, helps with sampling special pieces that we create for fashion shows or photoshoots. He also comes up with his own ideas and designs for furniture, something we do on an order basis. Even though we are a jewelry line we definitely want to venture into other design types like furniture.

And last but never least, Mom helps with a little bit of everything from marketing, sales, production and getting orders out, it’s a true family affair.

Do you design with a particular muse or audience in mind?

I usually design with a theme and audience in mind. For one collection I was inspired by Royal Women of past eras and named each piece with the name of one of these women, we also made the pieces exaggerated in size and added stones to them, something we had never done before but keeping our minimalistic DIB shapes. It was the most feminine collection we developed and our target audience were women.

For our last collection #yourdib we were inspired by many audiences and made a statement that our pieces are unisex. Our campaign pushed this objective as well as conscious messages forward, something we think the world needs more of such as “LOVE” and “BE THE CHANGE”.

Due to the variety and combination of materials this collection is very accessible for any age range.

Favorite websites, or social media handles?

I really love Pinterest since one of my favorite things is to create the mood boards for our collections this is a great inspiration bucket.
The Future Perfect is great for furniture and I am obsessed with furniture and home decor.
For instagrams I love @oceanramsey and @beau_traps

Some advice for anyone interested in exploring this world?

For advise I would say never ever give up on you dreams. Even if you feel like throwing the towel in, know that there is always ups and downs in any company. Keeping a positive mindset and seeing things from a different perspective will always help moving forward. It’s a tough industry and remember not everyone has to love what you are doing but you need to be committed and maintain a positive attitude!

Anything else you'd like to add….

I am an entrepreneur who strives for education, working 8+ years as Director of content engineering at Atomic.NYC an edTech company, has helped me gain the knowledge and skills to understand that education is key and those who can should always find a way to learn and help others learn. Dib as a company has always helped the Venezuelan foundation called @yotengounsueno_ we encourage everyone to do the same.
At the same time I am one of the 3 founders for @rare.fr , www.ra-re.fr , founded with a vision to bridge the gap between sound and apparel, RA+RE leads the way, making music you want to listen to and a collection you want to dance to. A vinyl only, female record label bringing you nothing but incredible beats and great clothing for all those dance machines!
I recently started a new project with my husband called @dibkorma which is a union between @jessiedib jewelry brand and @ikorma plastic/visual artist where we combine our talents and collaborate to bring the spectator different kinds of experiences from murals to installations and so much more. Since we began this project we have had the opportunity to present during Art Basel in Miami, at an art gallery in Caracas, Venezuela and the most recent we did was an installation at the new concept store in Soho @showfields_nyc .