Danish designer Ole Lyngaard possessed an inexhaustible supply of creativity and inspiration, for which he was almost as thankful as the women who wear his jewelry. The Ole Lyngaard label is still the preferred jewelry studio of some of the world’s most captivating celebrity women.
When Tasmanian-born Crown Princess Mary saw a handcrafted tiara exhibited at the Danish Royal Palace in 2009, she decided she simply had to wear it.
Official supplier to the Danish Royal Court, the Scandinavian Ole Lynggard label sets an extremely high bar with its highly desirable, handmade jewelry.
Ole Lynggard worked as an apprentice goldsmith in the 1950s in the small town of Hellerup, some 15 minutes by car from Copenhagen, and it was here he started out in 1963.
Like all children Ole Lyngaard was wide open to new impressions. But while the majority of 17-year-olds put on a mask of bored languor and arrogant isolation, Ole at that age chose instead to set up his own goldsmith’s bench and experiment with precious metals. Could what he saw and experimented with be translated into gold? And the experience was the start of a fascination which lead him around the world in search of inspiration and knowledge.
For five whole years he moved from country to country and let experience and inspiration come together as the building blocks of what was to become Ole Lyngaard’s unique style. Jewelry which invites women who wear it to be creative themselves, to put it together in a new way, with a new expression. Timeless and solid, unaffected by the ebb and flow of fashion trends, but with a cheerful twinkle in the eye, which says: “Hey, don’t you see how funny and beautiful it can be?”
“I can tell you that I make a living out of something I have been playing with since I was a boy,” he said when he just had celebrated his 70th birthday in 2006.
The tiara that excited Crown Princess Mary was, however, crafted by Charlotte Lyngaard, daughter of the company founder, and took more than 400 hours to make. The effort paid seemingly off.
The midnight tiara was the first addition in 35 years to the palace’s collection.
Charlotte Lynggaard, goldsmith and designer like her father, has worked side by side with Ole Lynggaard since she joined the company in 1992.
Six years ago, the company was stamped By Appointment to the Royal Danish Court, based on the longstanding relationship with the royals.
Uncompromising Danish Jewelry Designer, written by Tor Kjolberg