With 20 to watch, Flanders DC presents twenty emerging talents, who recently took their first steps in the worlds of design or fashion. We believe they will have great success in the future.

Who is Robbe Nelissen?

• graduated as a structural engineer and later trained as a goldsmith at Syntra
• collaborated with the Belgian Botter
• his creations are worn by DJ Zoey Hasselbank and supermodel Rose Bertram

Our jewellery is crude, but so many are like that. What makes them different is that they are quite technical in many ways. We make a lot by hand, but we also experiment with 3D or nano coatings. We also mix different styles, such as traditional with contemporary. I like to honour the traditional, and you can also see that in our designs. A clear visual identity is everything these days. We create a vibe around our brand so that people want to belong to our community.

We also often link the physical to the digital. For our latest pop-up, we designed 3D objects that served as displays for the jewellery. We projected scans of my friends onto digital screens and we hung digital jewellery in the same material as the physical jewellery on their digital busts. I don’t have that know-how myself, but fortunately, I have good contacts who have experience in this.

We want to evolve further into an accessories or jewellery brand instead of a goldsmith’s workshop where we only make custom items. That is not where our ambition lies. Unless it is for prestige projects, such as when we collaborated with the Belgian luxury brand Botter.

A fashion brand is more than just being creative. There would be a better balance if someone else took over the business side from me. Ideally, I would also hire a goldsmith and just focus on designing. Jewellery is very quickly satisfying. I can start modelling, go to the foundry, and I will already have a piece in silver tomorrow.