ROCKET MAN
Jeweller Johnny Rocket talks rock and roll, sticking to his roots and his rise to designing for the stars
After establishing his own company Johnny Rocket in 1997, the Australian-born jeweller has spent the last two decades based in London's East End designing his own collections sold at Liberty & Colette and Paul Smith. He has also designed jewels for the music industry and catwalks with clients ranging from Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue to brands such as Gucci. In 2014 he was named Best Independent Retailer for Bering Buyers Powers List and has remained in the Top 10 for Independent Member Retail Jewellers.
Today Johnny Rocket is designing collections for luxury menswear brand Master Debonair along with creating personalised jewels such as cufflinks for some of this year's Oscar nominees. Today he is also member of the British Jewellers Association and is the representative for the British Jewellery Industry as a member of the British Hallmarking Council.
When did you become interested in jewelling and what made you curious?
Well I must have been about sixteen or seventeen, my mother told me to go out and get a Saturday job so I could start paying my way, and I did. I went to the local mall and got myself a job at the local jewellers, they just happened become the biggest jewellers in Australia, so it just developed from there. I had a very nice English store manager, and I just wanted to get a trade, as you do. The boss of the place said I’m going off to become a tradesman in something and the owner came out and said, “so, you’re starting next Monday down at the factory, you can figure out whether you want to be a watchmaker or a jeweller” and, well, that was it! And then, six years later, there I was, a qualified—though I’m not sure that’s the appropriate word—jeweller.
Who inspired you and why?
I had many things that inspired me, I was actually more into rock and roll than I was into jewellery. I was a punk and bands like The Clash were in Australia on a regular basis, I was so intrigued by the do-it-yourself way they'd dress and accessorise. I’d also seen bands like Led Zeppelin and all that sort of stuff, I had older cousins, so these men and women that were part of fashion at the time showed there were no labels as such, everything had to be constructed yourself. So I got involved in that because a lot of fans wanted stuff made so by me being the only jeweller they knew, it just came from there. I was really learning from craft in my trade, I didn’t realise there was a whole art that went with the trade. And then a friend of mine gave me a book on Rennie the jeweller, and I was just like, “oh my God”. I just felt about two centre meters tall to seeing his work and I was just like, “ah.” So there’s more to this than just putting metal together and being a blacksmith on a small scale. So from there on I started learning about art along with working in the music industry at the same time as working as a jeweller, so I got the best of both worlds. I then just indulged myself and moved to Sydney where I worked with people like Nick Cave.
Nick Cave – that must have been pretty cool?
Ah, yeah, I’ve had a very colourful life. Nobody went to go and see Nick Cave when I was working with him, he was just a cacophony of noise. To see him now in Hobart on stage is just like, “excuse me?” so people like that have just become institutions. I mean now it’s what, forty years of punk? The British Museum, places like that, nobody expected our history to become such a sanitised and democratised thing. Punk has been born into the main stream, but that’s what happens. So at the same time my boss who was into diamonds would be looking at my work and going, “you weirdo—I’m not paying you to do that! But I can see you have a talent of something else.”
Where did you do your training?
I did all my training in Australia, I was a full-finished article when I came to The Great Frog London. It was created by a guy called Paterson Riley, he’s a New Zealander but there were several problems in the sense that he’s a good PR man, but he can’t make jewellery. His son on the other hand, Reino, is brilliant. He actually used to live down the road from me when we were living in Whitechapel, I actually gave him my pension when I moved house because I just knew that he was going to be the making of The Great Frog. It’s that classic thing of a son and father not seeing eye-to-eye and Reino just had better ideas than Paterson. So, I worked at The Great Frog because they wanted good jewels. I could carve, I could do all of that, I could make traditional stuff, I could re-size a ring without it breaking. So I was there and I enjoyed that, I loved working with people like Hell’s Angels, I’d go drinking with Lemmy! But at the same time I was also learning the art of PR and the art of product placement. My jewellery was good, but you just don’t know that within yourself.
With that in mind, if you could choose anyone to collaborate with or design for, who would that be?
At the moment, I don’t know. I’ve worked for so many cool people… But probably someone like Bowie. Because Bowie was a huge influence on me as a child. Everybody I know always defers their inspiration from David Bowie because he was what he was. But at the moment, I’ve been lucky that I’ve been dealing with a lot of the grime guys and we’ve just don’t a thing for the film Brotherhood, so that was quite cool. I’ve been working with a sculptor called Chris Mytton and he’s a talented guy, he carves marble like the ancient Romans. He has the same techniques as I do, but he’s urban. He’s recently created this hoodie that’s a faceless hooded figure, so it looks like Nero. He’s also done this thing called The Alter, which is actually a PS4 all made of marble but everything plugs into it. You can literally plug all the leads into it and it takes months to do this, and I get to work with people like that all the time which is amazing.
You've definitely worked with some amazing people - who's been your favourite?
Sometimes celebrities aren’t always the best people to collaborate with because they have a specific talent. Whether it be music or painting, to be perfectly honest actors are the most dull people in the world. The best people are those who are building, those who do the sets and the getting the look of the film or the choreographers, because an actor just interprets a script - it’s all the other stuff that’s going around that’s fantastic. I mean, I like people like GaGa and that but I’m waiting, you know. I’m always keeping an eye out for people who might not be getting the kudos they want to or deserve because that’s what happened to me when I first started. For me, it was getting the opportunity to work with brands like Armani and Alexander McQueen or working with Aunt Gaster and Fabione Grooverider on drum and bass. I didn’t actually know that drum and bass was going to be a huge thing, I just liked it. So you’ve got to go with your gut instinct and sometimes it’s not about the money, I mean, I didn’t actually want to work with Kylie! I love her as a person but when I was growing up in Australia I didn’t watch one episode of Neighbours and I think the coolest thing she ever did was get with Nick Cave. It’s when you take someone out of the box and you think, right, she’s an Oreo cookie, but she’s not, she’s actually a vodka martini! So when you work with other people, they draw out this otherness in you that makes you push yourself beyond what everyone else expects and you can come up with something completely new.
Wise words of advice!
That’s what I say to my daughter, don’t look for affirmation from others, look inside you. Don’t ask your girlfriends what they think of that bikini, if you’ve picked it out, you like it, don’t go and get a second opinion or a third or a twelfth, there’s no point! Go with your gut, because that’s how you’ll get style! Bowie would never have asked anyone, “shall I wear these platforms with this mini dress?” Never. I think the greatest tragedy with this whole thing of collaborations is who the hell needs a stylist? I mean look at the Kardashians, they’re just a walking plate of fashion stuff that they get from labels. Make your own labels!
Is there anything you’re working on at the moment?
I’ve just finished delivering some cufflinks to Fox Studios, that was quite good… I can’t really say. But that’s for someone who’s very happy and it’s his first film, he normally does music. And he’s very H-A-P-P-P-Y.
Think I’m getting it.
And the other guy is quite a spin, I’ve done these rocket cufflinks, and this is his first feature film. He’s normally on TV on one of the longest running, most successful, geeky TV shows that you’ll ever see. But yeah, he’s doing his first feature in a film and they’re all going to the Academy Awards. And that’s fantastic, the film's called Hidden Figures. So I’m working on that, I’m doing a new menswear collection which collaborates with a friend of mine who’s moved up to Newcastle, and they’re beautiful gentleman’s Master Debonair which is Victoriana. It’s beautiful British tailoring and that sense of gentlemanly style so I have to make stuff that’s referential to that era and make it a bit dandy, so that will be a nice job!
Amazing. So, why Johnny Rocket?
Because when I was a tour manager in Australia, if you didn’t get your arse on stage on time, you’d get a rocket! I’m a punter. I am a person who pays my money to go and see someone I adore, I want to go and see them. So don’t you dare turn up an hour late. Don’t you dare. I mean have you ever seen those movies where bands play behind cages in America? In Australian punk rock, there were no cages. If you delay yourself or treat your audience with disrespect, you will get bottled and canned indefinitely. When I was growing up music was taken extremely seriously because that’s all that you had. Professional bands like AC/DC, Elvis Costelloe, you don’t disrespect people with it. And my job was to make sure those bands got on stage on time and if you didn’t, Lord help you because I knew that it wasn’t just them, it’s their career.
Has there been a particular highlight of your career?
One of the highlights was moving into around Hoxon, at the time when people like Lean McQueen and the new wave of British designers of that era were starting. I’d been working with people like Julian McDonald who others sometimes dismiss as being a bit sparkly but he’s a great knitworm and I learnt a lot from them because I knew nothing about fashion. Nothing. And they taught me everything. And it was great to be with other people that respected you craft-wise, and working with all these other people musicians, bands. That all comes from knowing your stuff. So you’ve got to get to know your stuff. So those kinds of things career-wise are always important. Always take your opportunities.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, Johnny.
I’ve always said, the stylist, the stylist’s assistant, the photographer’s assistant are always the people that are going to be the people who have all the power. And so if you’re spoken to nicely and treated well, then one day when you get to my position, in your career, you’ll turn around to someone who’s asked you to do the same thing. And you will be kind and you will be helpful.
