Posted by Adam

Tuesday July 28, 2009

Lily Allen has revealed the influence behind her new jewelery collection — her “gypsy” grandmother.

The Smile hitmaker recently unveiled the new line at London’s swanky Claridges hotel.

“I was so excited when I was asked to design a jewelery collection,” she dished. “I was in New York and literally went straight out to a bookshop and bought about 40 reference books, on everything from antique jewellery to modern-day bling.

“Then I went through them and chose loads of things that inspired me. I sent them to the designers with annotations on how I wanted the pieces to look and how to update them.

“I had no idea about how to design a coherent collection so I asked my old friend, jewellery designer Solange Azagury-Partridge, what to do. I have always loved her stuff. She told me to design different ranges within the collection.”

The range is priced between £30 ($60) and £100 ($100).

“Firstly there’s the coin collection, which is a nod to my gypsy past,” she added. “My grandmother was a proper gypsy, and I have inherited quite a lot of her pieces.

We took the idea of coins as the basis and then updated them by putting moons and stars on the faces.

“I also wanted to do something with fruit and animals, and of course, smiley faces to match my body tattoo.”

Tags: lily allen