Gabrielle Huguenot: The Serpent Woman rises from the shadows to the light at Bijorhca

Amid the continuous energy of Bijorhca, held alongside Who’s Next—where trends are shaped, and creative ideas collide—one enigmatic figure captured the audience’s attention. Gabrielle Huguenot, winner of the Hyères Grand Jury Prize in the Accessories category, transcended the stage of this event, operated under the BOCI, with a performance that was both unsettling and hypnotic.

The Swiss designer, armed with a bold vision and sculptural pieces, didn’t simply present a collection—she embodied a manifesto. Gabrielle Huguenot doesn’t see jewellery as mere adornment. Her work delves into the paradoxes of the femme fatale, explores sustainability as a power play, and examines the duality between oppression and emancipation. Through her mythological creation—the Serpent Woman—she redefines the role of the female body in fashion and the narratives imposed upon it. In a captivating and conceptually rich conference, she shared the creative and intellectual journey that led to this raw, uninhibited ode to human expression.

The Serpent Woman: Rebellion and metamorphosis


It all began in 2022, when she was still a student. Caught between disillusionment with an industry suffocating under its own contradictions and an irrepressible urge to create differently, Gabrielle Huguenot made a radical choice: she would follow neither the path of conformity nor destruction. Inspired by her childhood icons—the femme fatales of pop culture, from Poison Ivy to Medusa and the symbolic power of the serpent—she imagined a hybrid persona.


The Serpent Woman isn’t here to seduce. She exists on her own terms. Like a reptile lurking in the shadows of its terrarium, she observes, transforms, sheds her skin. “The serpent does not live to entertain us,” reminds the designer. Just as the femme fatale is often relegated to a rigid role—alluring but doomed—Gabrielle Huguenot refuses this entrapment. Instead, she reimagines these figures, offering them a fate beyond tragedy or silence, echoing the words of Aimé Césaire: “We are those who say no to the shadows.”

Combat jewellery and relics of darkness


At Bijorhca, Huguenot’s world unfolded in a disruptive spectacle, an anthem to self-assertion through ornamentation. Her jewellery and accessories—more than sculptural adornments with conceptual undertones—stand as symbolic weapons. 


Each piece emerges from raw instinct, crafted without preliminary sketches, as if forged directly from the Serpent Woman’s flesh. Metal elements sourced from BDSM culture, fishing gear, and traditional jewellery-making are reassembled into a unique visual language. She subverts relics of control and restraint, transforming them into symbols of power and liberation. A bracelet forces the hand downward, mimicking an imposed gesture of submission. 


A tiara compels the head to bow, evoking a ritual of self-abnegation. But this is not resignation—these objects serve as provocations. How do we accept being represented? At what point do we reclaim the symbols that once alienated us?

"What fascinates me isn’t the object itself, but what it reveals about us"

Inspired by the radical performances of Marina Abramović, she incorporates her own body into her creations, playing on the tension between artist and muse. It’s no surprise that her performances disturb, her pieces provoke. Some find them sublime; others unsettling. But none leave indifferent.

The art of Disruption: Beyond Jewellery, a sensory immersion


At this edition of Bijorhca, Gabrielle Huguenot didn’t just exhibit her work—she delivered a full-scale spectacle, an unfiltered immersion into her creative world. Her artistic direction blends installations, movement, and sensory experiences, drawing spectators into a dialogue with their own perceptions.


 In one of her performances, a dress covered in mould-like patterns evokes forced confinement. A pair of deliberately unwearable shoes challenges the very notion of functionality in fashion. Her fragrance, “Négligence”, created in collaboration with Firmenich, questions olfactory norms, daring to embrace body odour as a statement rather than something to be erased. Through these interventions, Gabrielle Huguenot elevates jewellery to a form of language, a performance where creation meets politics, where the femme fatale no longer seduces but asserts her existence.

From Shadows to Light: What’s next for the Serpent Woman?


In a world where trends are both fleeting and overwhelming, few designers succeed in anchoring a vision that is truly distinctive. Gabrielle Huguenot is one of them. Her work transcends aesthetics—it is conceptual, disruptive, deeply rooted in reflections on the representation of the body, the power of objects, and the place of women in Fashion, Art, and Contemporary Society. With the Serpent Woman, she offers a narrative in constant metamorphosis. A shapeshifting icon, breaking free from her chains, evolving, and affirming her power.

Yann Jobard Setzu

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