ABOUT
THE DESIGNER
Seohee has always been interested in structures and geometry, and the way materials and forms combine to make something new. For S/H KOH which was launched in 2015, she has combined her love of geometry and modern art with her classical design experiences from Tiffany and Co. and Van Cleef and Arpels.
Born in South Korea and raised in Europe and USA, Seohee has been making jewelry since high school. After graduating with a degree in jewelry design from Rhode Island School of Design, she also attended master’s program in Milan, Italy under Richemond group to obtain master’s degree in luxury design. Since then, Seohee has worked with the world’s most elite and luxury brands like Tiffany and Co. in NYC, Van Cleef and Arpels in Paris, to name a few. She has been a lead couture jewelry designer for over a decade.
Her jewelry collections come from the fascination in her youth by the geometry of lines, shapes, angles and numbers. Jewelry proved the perfect mode of expression for Seohee Koh’s unique aesthetic vision. A math major in her native Korea, she studied arts at Gould Academy in Maine, USA and took her first jewelry course. From there she went on to Rhode Island School of Design, where a jewelry studio visit proved life-changing.
PHILOSOPHY
S/H KOH fine Jewelry draws largely from timeless principles of geometry and of 20th century modern art and architecture, integrating them with simple, harmonious elegance that is ultimately timeless.
The harmony of geometry is evident everywhere and directly informs the creative vision. S/H KOH endeavors to express this essential beauty in the jewelry, formulating new ideas for designs that are as elegant as they are inspired.
INSPIRATION
“I’ve always been interested in structures and geometry and the way materials and forms combine to make something new.”
Your Bauhaus Art and Architecture Primer from a Very Smitten Jewelry Designer.
Though Seohee Koh is a jewelry designer by trade, she’s an architect at heart, and she’s especially hyped on the Bauhaus movement, named for the German art school that was open for business from 1919 to 1933. Here a few of the era’s masters who she looks up to and draws from for her minimalist, structural designs—and some highlights from her trips around the world to visit their work.
“A few years ago, on a road trip through Germany, I visited the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation designed by Walter Gropius, the founder of Bauhaus. Dessau is the most important city for Bauhaus —I also visited Gropius’s Dessau Masters' Houses while I was there.”
“Also in Dessau is Carl Fieger’s Kornhaus. I love the geometric structure of the building and the composition of big windows, which really enhance the building’s Bauhaus look.”
WASSILY KANDINSKY
“My favorite painting is Composition VIII. Constructivist artists made objects in their work that didn’t exist in the real world. This painting combines Suprematist, Constructivist, and Bauhaus elements, and it illustrates Kandinsky’s command over modern art at the time.”
“There’s so much excellent architecture in Chicago. Last time I was there, I visited tons of buildings by Mies van der Rohe. Although van der Rohe has work all over the world, he had the most influence in Chicago. The Illinois Institute of Technology campus on Chicago's South Side has the densest concentration of his buildings, but it’s also worth leaving the city to see the Farnsworth House, a glass-box home in Plano, Illinois. It’s a perfect example of the way modernist architects juxtaposed sleek, streamlined structures with the surrounding nature.”
“The recent Calder: Hypermobility exhibit at the Whitney in NYC laid out his work with the perfect background colors, which gave them a graphic, contrasty look. It was so well-done. The exhibit closed, but you can still see videos and photos online. I’m so inspired by the way he combined forms to create new ones and incorporated shadows and movement into his work.”