Style Profile: Rebekah Kosonen Bide
Kiko Kostadinov Bean Indigo Circe Dress.
Rebekah Kosonen Bide is carving out a space where jewellery, sculpture, and storytelling collide. Originally from Perth and now based in London, her work feels unearthed from another time—both ancient and futuristic—shaped by experimental techniques and a deep connection to ritual and form. Collaborating with some of fashion’s most subversive designers, she pushes the boundaries of adornment, transforming jewellery into something almost mythical.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, we speak with Rebekah about her creative journey, influences, and forging her own path in the industry.
As part of our ongoing music series, she’s curated a Spotify playlist that reflects the spirit of her work—listen here.
Kiko Kostadinov Black Chacobsa Blouse. Comme des Garçons Black Asymmetrical Pleated Skirt. Maison Margiela Tabi Mary-Jane Heels.
What first sparked your interest in jewellery design? Did you always know you wanted to work in jewellery, or did your artistic journey take unexpected turns to arrive here?
For me, it’s always been about sculpture—wearable pieces that go beyond jewellery. My focus is on creating objects that hold meaning and experience, unrestricted by traditional exhibition forms.
It started with a gold bracelet my nana gave me when I was born, engraved with my name. It still fits me now, a personal artifact I carry that connects me to my family and history. Little details meaning a lot - scraps of note paper with my dad’s handwriting. Fragments of memory, consciousness and time survived in objects.
My journey from art student to where my career is now started by learning from other artists around me, observing how they navigated their practice beyond academia. The modern-day artist master/apprentice model. Museums further shaped my perspective, surrounded by artifacts, I thought about how objects carry time and meaning within material. I wanted to make pieces that sit with you, can be worn yet feel part of a larger body - a broader conversation between form, material, time and memory.
Your jewellery often blurs the line between art and fashion, incorporating both experimental and traditional techniques. How do you see the relationship between art and fashion in your work, and how do these methods influence the stories you tell through your designs?
In my work and community I operate within, the boundaries between art, fashion and other disciplines blur, it often comes down to the business model the final work is funnelled into. I see what I do as wearable sculpture, where materials, shape, and story merge naturally, not confined to one category.
Collaboration plays a big role in how my designs evolve. Working with other creative workers brings new ideas, challenges my methods, and creates new avenues to explore.
Blending experimental and traditional techniques allows me develop ideas in different ways. I pull from the past, how materials were used historically, while also challenging those ideas to push them forward. Whether through hand-etching, life-casting, or electro-forming, each method adds its own layer to the piece.
Kiko Kostadinov Bean Indigo Circe Dress.
You’ve collaborated with designers such as Masha Popova, Dilara Fındıkoğlu, and Ru-yenn Kwok. What excites you most about working in the fashion world, and how does it differ from creating standalone pieces for your own collections?
Collaborating with these designers has been an accelerating force for my practice. The fast-paced nature of fashion is simultaneously horrifying and thrilling, an adrenaline-infused productive and destructive way of working.
These partnerships merge my sculptural approach with their unique visions, resulting in pieces that are both innovative and deeply personal. The "Broken Tiara Chandelier Earrings" for Masha Popova, for example, exemplify this fusion, blending our distinct styles into a cohesive design. Collaborating with others amplifies individual potential, bringing together diverse perspectives and skills that make the final pieces richer and more layered.
Fashion collaboration also introduces new challenges and opportunities. It requires balancing artistic vision with practical concerns like wearability, market appeal, and production. This dynamic requires me to adapt and innovate in ways that work for both the designer and myself.
Your background in sculpture and time-based media seems integral to your approach to jewellery. How did studying at Goldsmiths and Central Saint Martins shape your technical skills and artistic philosophy?
At Goldsmiths, I was introduced to a more fundamental, philosophical approach to art that questioned every structure we work within. The emphasis wasn’t just on making; but developing a deeper understanding of how to read and engage with art critically. This shaped how I approach my work, pushing me to think about art not just as a form but as a vehicle for ideas and narratives, grounding my process in a strong, conceptual framework that influences everything I create.
Central Saint Martins connected me to the current market and creative community. I found the networks that supported my practice and helped me build relationships in the fashion and design world. The combination of practical design training and exposure to such a wide range of artistic influences, helped me translate my ideas into pieces that have both meaning and market relevance..
Marc Le Bihan Dark Grey Asymmetrical Long Sleeve Top. Song for the Mute Ombre Check Pleated Skirt.
Your work feels highly personal and often mythological, yet it’s described as being "disseminated over collective and individual time, space, and personhood." What cultural, historical, or personal influences drive your storytelling, and how do you hope wearers connect with your pieces?
Maybe there’s a need in us for ritual, for marking time and notes of importance in routines that is fundamental to experiencing time and make meaning of our lives. Rites and ceremony exist within secular modern life just in ways we might not be fully conscious of. I hope the pieces I create offer those grounding moments, just as I experience in making them. My work is meant to integrate with the wearer, becoming part of their personal rituals and develop their own subjective narratives.
My process is deeply rooted in a balance of form, functionality, and emotional resonance and the nature of its materiality. The way jewellery, wearable metal pieces, and art can transform over time is something that interests me. It’s not just about the object itself – it’s about how wearing the piece develops it over time.
People have lost their pieces and other people have found them and emailed me to ask if they can keep them because my details are on the piece – my work enters other people’s lives without my direct influence.
Fashion is inherently transient, but your jewellery often carries a sense of permanence and timelessness. How do you balance contemporary trends with this enduring quality in your designs?
The material within jewellery hold a value, a history and its own ramifications in being used to create something. I only add to this with the shaping and working of it. Thats why it's easier to incorporate staples and much-loved pieces into what we wear – it isn’t always playing centre stage of what style we're wearing, rather an undercurrent that solidifies who we are beneath it, a common thread in our experience of dressing over time.
A key part of a piece’s permanence is the value of the materials that are used. A lot of the shaping of the material isn't sculpted under my hand, but how it organically interacts with elements it's exposed to. The materiality of the piece lends itself to a degree of timelessness in that it created its own body, without my eye which is subject to influence from passing trends. It's a method within which I produce pieces with a specific look, that can be carried across different fluid styles.
Marc Le Bihan Dark Grey Asymmetrical Long Sleeve Top.
Why did you decide to leave Perth and move to London, and how have the landscapes, cultures, and histories of these places influenced your artistic identity and design choices?
This is difficult to talk about in some ways but very easy to sum up: I wanted to know more and needed space from where I came from to do so.
After finishing high school, I moved to Sydney to study Fine Art before being accepted to study in London, I had a desire to explore beyond what I knew. A lot of what I was ingesting was coming from London publications and sources which heavily influenced my choice to move there.
Now, there's growing awareness of Perth and Australia's self-generating culture and market. The region has a strong economic potential to fund innovation and reflect on and remedy Perth's origins and legacy.
Even if I never return permanently, Perth is where my family is, the place and the nature that's at home is at the core of who I am.
Your primary mediums are jewellery and sculpture. Do you see yourself expanding further into other forms of accessories or artistic mediums?
While focus has been jewellery and sculpture, I make time to explore other possibilities. Recently, I showcased sculptural works at The Salon in Paris with Café Forgot x No Agency, presenting pieces like Cold Connection (A) and (B), made from nickel-plated bronze and sterling silver. These works drew inspiration from horns as bugles and objects of healing, exploring ideas of connection and transmission in ways that challenged traditional materials and forms.
Creating large, non-commissioned works presents challenges, particularly financial ones. To sustain my practice, I balance commissioned work with personal projects. While commissioned pieces provide financial stability, they often limit the freedom for more experimental, large-scale works. This requires careful time management to juggle commercial demands and fine art practice.
I'm also interested in how technology can influence materiality. Integrating tech—such as robotic tools for precision or experimenting with new information systems—offers exciting ways to challenge my approach and rethink form, movement, and material, redefining how objects are experienced and it's fundamental relationship to material.
Ultimately, I view all mediums— sculpture, jewellery, or tech-driven creations—as part of a broader exploration. I aim to continue pushing the limits of art and design, integrating diverse approaches, creating pieces that resonate on multiple levels while balancing financial sustainability and creative freedom.
Kiko Kostadinov Bean Indigo Circe Dress. Maison Margiela Brown Suede Tabi Boots.
What has been the most memorable or challenging project you’ve worked on so far?
One of the most memorable and challenging projects was creating Robokah, a life-sized robotic sculpture shown in the 2020 Death Drive exhibition in Brisbane. It required learning robotics, sculpting chemically reactive materials, alongside programming and engineering computer circuitry. Initially, I aimed to create a body that could perform tasks I couldn't, but the process revealed a profound lesson: the robot required a network of community members to remain upright and fulfil its purpose, highlighting the importance of collaboration and support.
Additionally, fashion weeks have been intense, with months of work condensed into weeks, operating heavy machinery, and scalding materials on little sleep. Also, communicating with designers that their vision, using my method, can't always be achieved within their budget or timeframe.
What advice would you give to aspiring designers who want to navigate the intersection of fine art and fashion, especially those just starting out in their careers?
I hate to think I'd be responsible for giving someone career advice but what I can say is: Find a core drive that can push you through the many negatives and insecurities of a career in art and fashion. The positives are very high, the negatives can be very low, so learning to handle that and hold your nerve is crucial. The work-life balance can be very blurred.
Some people know where they want to specialise, others don't. Both are okay. Don’t worry about fitting into established definitions—it's more interesting to make it up as you go. Develop critical thinking, establish a skillset, and adapt it to whatever context you need.
A conceptually good piece of art made badly is just bad. When I started as a ‘diagnostic’ student at Saint Martins, I didn’t have a clear direction. One tutor, recognising my technical skill, told me to explore Europe and fall in love. It was cliched, but true—you need focus and experiences that challenge your fundamental understandings to create work that can have an ability to challenge and resonate in itself.