When his buddy Wes Anderson asked him to keep half a year free for a little something he was working on, Waris suddenly found himself in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. While they were shooting in Rome, he began collaborating on his next House of Waris collection with a Roman design studio - a workshop that had been a family business for generations. Collaborating on the line is what House of Waris is all about; his earlier House of Horror pieces - teeth earrings as sharp as razors & a silver skeleton hand choker - were designed jointly with Benjamin Cho. As he told, "I view the collaborations as art pieces. It's fun to work with people who have never made jewellery before, they come without preconceived ideas and restrictions."
The pieces from the Italian atelier are an interesting blend and juxtaposition of Western & Eastern design sensibilities & techniques. "Pieces made in Rome are often cast in sleek white gold and encrusted with diamonds,"From the Indian workshops come necklaces of carved smoky topaz, yellow gold and tourmalin pendants, and hand-hammered and drilled earrings - no two pieces are exactly alike. The diamonds here are discreet, not in the bling-y places you would expect to find them, but running down the outer edge of a miniature dagger, for example. Handmade wooden boxes add the final touch of luxury, with the House of Waris burned onto the hinged lid with an iron stamp."