Just what is the Gothic Look?
The classic silver gothic look is created by a putting together a potent mix of leather clothing and heavy sterling silver jewelry. The Gothic Look is often commonly known as the biker look, the gothic look, the punk look or the rock & roll look. Whatever you want to call it, the aforementioned look is a cultural trend which has its roots in post-hippie American culture. The paradigm image it commonly inspires often consists of a rugged, handsome, masculine and individualistic man riding a high CC motorcycle through endless rural roads into the sunset with an adventure-filled agenda. It is one which tickles the imagination and induces awe, admiration and wonder. Today, the biker look has been popularized amongst musicians, bikers, biker enthusiasts, rock n roll fans and other cultural trendsetters eager to showcase and promote individualism via the clothes and accessories they wear. This article is a testament to Gabor Nagy: the fashion visionary who single handedly started it all.
Who is Gabor Nagy, and what is Gaboratory?
The Gabor Nagy house of design, born in the early 90′s, was started by the late Gabor Nagy, and was the very first pioneer and granddaddy of gothic biker look. Long before Chrome Hearts and other well-known biker accessory brands were born, the man who started the entire biker jewelry craze promoted his crazy, groundbreaking ideas to the fashion industry and succeeded in getting the world sold on the silver-leather look.
Gabor Nagy the Visionary
The man was nothing less than a bona fide a fashion visionary; one who was way ahead of his time. Defying established ideas and perceptions of jewelry as small, delicate looking accessories worn exclusively by wealthy, upper class ladies, Gabor developed the entire idea of biker jewelry, which turned the idea of jewelry on its head. Crafted as heavy, chunky sterling silver bracelets and rings bearing anarchistic gothic carved-in motifs, gothic silver jewelry was the antithesis of the idea that jewelry should be delicate or feminine. Very much contrary to traditional jewelry which conveyed ideas of societal class and obedience, biker jewelry stirred the contrasting image of the infamous renegade outlaw biker. It became right away clear that this was really not an accessory which traditional buyers of jewelry (the socialites) would take to.
Defying all odds, Gabor Nagy single handedly brought about a fashion renaissance and brought jewelry for the first time into the realm of menswear. Trendsetters, celebrities & and many other leading icons quickly grew to love the intricate designs and solid feel, and purchased his jewelry pieces in sizeable numbers. Fans naturally caught on quickly as well.
What makes Gaboratory’s groundbreaking success even more astounding is the oft-forgotten fact that Gabor Nagy pursued his new fashion in a time when diamonds had sent metal jewelry out of fashion. Sterling silver was at that time treated as a mere complement to the diamond, which had successfully dominated the globe of jewelry since the phenomenal advertising efforts of De Beers in the 1950s. Gabor thought otherwise. He saw that unlike the cold, rigid diamond whose surfaces could accommodate no pattern other than rigid cuts and angles, sterling silver could be subjected to rigorous artistic efforts and be turned into one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork imbued with the artist’s spirit. He sought to bring sterling silver back into the limelight, and he did so in dramatic style.
Gabor’s global footprint
The sterling silver fashion spread well beyond the shores of America. Within a year of Gabor’s revolution, Japanese tourists first set eyes on biker jewelry in downtown LA, fell instantly in love with Gabor’s intricate artwork and imported an equally intense thirst for gothic silver jewelry across the Atlantic to Asia. Today, the fashion craze has spread also to mainland Europe, especially in France and Germany. In Asia, (Taiwan, Korea and Japan) an entire new culture of rebellion has emerged to down out the strait-jacketed and stiffly hierarchical traditional South Asian culture.
Although Gabor passed away several years ago, his cause continues to inspire jewelers all over the world. His Gaboratory school of design spawned a generation of gifted students successful in their own right, including Bill Wall and Travis Walker, the owners of the immensely successful Bill Wall Leather & Double Cross luxury labels. Richard Stark of Chrome Hearts, arguably the largest luxury label in the world of gothic silver jewelry, gained much of his inspiration from Gabor Nagy’s work, and today’s best-selling CH designs mostly have their roots in Gabor’s early work.
Gaboratory fakes and inspired jewelry: Why they are becoming more popular
In recent years, Gaboratory has faced challenges from numerous offshore competitors of equal capacity and talent, resources & ability to deliver equally intricate, stunning & expertly crafted luxury gothic silver jewelry to bikers and other rock-culture lovers at a small fraction of its jewelry prices. Now, fans of gothic sterling silver jewelry have a wide range of alternatives to original jewelry. They are waking up to the reality of branding, which is really no more than an illusion. Brand is not something that customers will always be willing to bear the cost for. In view of the easy availability of cheaper & equally attractive offerings, it is no wonder that luxury label jewelry isn’t an uncommon sight on the streets despite the premium brand pricing of the original.
The new wisdom is: why bust the bank on luxury label jewelry when one could easily get a nearly identical product crafted from the same Top quality 925 sterling silver at a miniscule fraction of the price?
However, it is critical to know the grade of jewelry you are paying for. Gaboratory Jewelry competitors range from Best grade alternatives & close replicas by freelance expert jewelers to mass-producing bootleggers churning out cheap bootlegs made from low-grade materials such as steel and copper.
If you wish to learn more about selecting premium grade replicas made from real sterling silver jewelry, visit Skull necklace
This researcher is an experienced Texan designer with a decade of jewelry design experience. He does both jewelry craft and fashion analysis. To know more about David Yurman, fakes, inspired alternatives and other challenges facing the brand, visit David yurman
