Fashion designer Stine Goya and George Jensen team up for jewelled daisies

Georg Jensen’s collaboration with Danish designer Stine Goya was a natural move when it decided to refresh its classic Daisy jewellery.

New jewellery range by Stine Goya for Georg Jensen.

Copenhagen-based designer Stine Goya is no stranger to a beautiful floral print. While the Scandinavian fashion aesthetic is often categorised by a love of neutral shades and a minimalist aesthetic, Goya’s designs have stood apart for the past 16 years for their exuberance of colour and print.

It made her the perfect choice to breathe new life into a classic of Danish design, Georg Jensen’s Daisy collection. “There’s something beautiful about the daisy,” Goya tells WISH. “Because it is technically a weed, but it has so many different meanings in different cultures, and symbolisms. There’s something quite beautiful about that.”

With collaborations liberally strewn throughout today’s fashion landscape, Goya has in recent years taken a more cautious approach, but this one was too tempting a to pass on.

“When I do a collaboration, it has to be something a little bit unexpected,” she says. “I have to learn from it. A company like Georg Jensen has this very beautiful aesthetic, it’s very Nordic, it has the craftsmanship. For me, I have the craftsmanship but I have a very different aesthetic. And I like the idea of bringing us together and seeing what that third place could be. When you have these two very different companies that are rooted in Denmark and have the same roots in some ways, bringing us together and seeing what could come out of that, that was my main curiosity.”

Copenhagen-based designer Stine Goya.

The Daisy collection is now in its eighth decade, having an esteemed history with its roots quite literally in royalty. The daisy is the national flower of Denmark, and upon the birth of Her Majesty Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark, just seven days after the Nazi occupation of the country in April 1940, the company created a daisy brooch as a gift to her. From there, the Daisy collection grew and prospered like the flowers that bloom all over the country, even becoming a symbol of hope and resistance during the occupation.

In its existing form, the collection is based around a small sterling silver and enamel flower in white, seen on pendants and in simple earrings, or strung along a chain in bracelet form. That floral motif has barely changed in all those years, and Jensen creative director Ragnar Hjartarson felt that it was time for a freshen up.

He approached Goya a year ago to discuss the reinvention of the line, citing her “expert use of colour and print” as the reason for his choice. “It’s such an iconic piece of jewellery both for Denmark but also for Georg Jensen,” says Goya. “So it was really interesting to find out how we can bring together the perception of this flower but also with something new.”

She spent time in the archives of the 118-year-old brand, which is also one of the official purveyors to the Court of Denmark.

Earrings from the range.

Despite the different pieces that have made up the Daisy collection in its history, there was one overriding element for Goya: a lack of colour. “This was how we started out the conversation – how can we bring colour to this iconic collection?”

The second factor was its shape, which has traditionally seen the flower’s petals blunted at the ends and largely joined up. “I wanted to make it a little bit more modern in its shape, because it has been the same shape since the 1940s. I started drawing the petals again and opening it up slightly, making it a little bit more organic looking and softer.” She wanted to make it a “playful collection”, and started with that most iconic of childhood pursuits, the daisy chain. That brought with it an overlaying of the motif, also in different sizes. The resulting collection is a delightful update that speaks to both brands.

Ear cuffs, that most popular of contemporary embellishments, are a standout, either clusters that run along the lobe, or single flowers that cling to the cartilage, which Goya says can be worn together or staggered: “They are super cool but also very pretty.”

Earrings and an ear cuff from the range.

The necklace is like a garland of flowers worn close to the neck, while the classic single pendants and earrings have been replaced by an overlapping duo in two sizes.

The collection comes in three hand-painted colour stories: pale cream, grey and off-white; a mix of pale greens; and a pastel palette of pink, green and blue.

Goya thinks that the results will have a broad appeal, like both her own brand and customers of Georg Jensen, who are legion in Australia, which makes up its biggest market outside Denmark.

“This flower is really for everyone. It’s the young girl making a wish for her mum or grandmum to buy it for her, but I could also see my mum wearing this flower.”

At a time when many people are looking for positivity and joy in their fashion after two years of the pandemic, Goya is convinced that the Daisy collection has found its moment. “I do think that this collection will have that effect, because it is colourful, it is bold,” she says.