If you know grills, you’ve heard of Dolly Cohen: the designer who’s created sets for A$AP Rocky, Rihanna, Pharrell, Drake, and more. Well, back in January, in the middle of Paris Men’s Fashion Week, we linked up with Dolly Cohen to hit up her studio and learn more about her legendary roster of clients. We found out what goes on behind the scenes, more about the most GOATed people she’s made grills for, and got the inside info on her recent collaboration with Chivas Regal. Keep reading to find out what went down.
Between the chaos of back-to-back shows and events at Paris Fashion Week, we took the time to hit up Dolly Cohen’s design studio in Paris’ seventh arrondissement, where she showed us her process and talked us through her inspiration. Looking around the space, moulds of teeth and grills were everywhere, all completely unique (as well as some custom bottles of Chivas Regal from her link up with the brand).
On the diversity of grills throughout the room, Dolly told us, “There’s no one perfect set, everything is perfect. Everything. As soon as it shines in the mouth, it’s perfect.” Having linked up with some major celebrities in the past - from A$AP to Madonna - and designed the iconic mouth pieces from Riccardo Tisci’s FW15 Givenchy show, it makes sense that Dolly Cohen would say there’s no one perfect set, because all her designs have been so GOATed.
When we asked her how she got into designing grills in the first place, she said she didn’t get into it via the same route most people do. “I didn’t go to [jewellery design] school. I went to a dental school instead, so I used dental prosthesis techniques, which involved metallurgy, to express myself in jewellery.”
As part of her link up with Chivas Regal, the brand commissioned her to work on a design project involving the creation of a one-of-one gold sculpture, and a limited selection of exclusive Chivas bottle cages. Taking root in the way that Dolly designs grills, her collaboration with Chivas Regal follows the same aesthetic at the jewellery you've seen worn on the teeth of the likes of A$AP Rocky and Rihanna.
On the link up with Chivas Regal, Dolly said “I used a bit of the method [I have for designing grills] but on a giant scale.” For the solid gold custom bottle adornment she designed for Chivas Regal, Dolly explained “I really wanted to take the whole bottle in its entirety, all the way to the top. I also had this desire that [the sculpture] would still express itself, without the bottle inside it. I really wanted to encompass. the whole bottle and for it to be beautiful without the bottle inside it.”
Although she’s been designing grills since 2005, Dolly Cohen didn’t go into doing commissions for celebrities straight away. Explaining how that came about, she said, "I always wanted [work with big names], but I wasn’t reaching them at first. But then I made an Instagram account and I had a lot of visuals to show - it's true that Instagram really opened doors and frontiers. Through Instagram many celebrities discovered my work, and then, I started getting contacted through their networks.”
One of the first celebrities to commission Dolly Cohen was A$AP Rocky, who famously sought her out on a short trip to Paris after he saw - and loved - some of her work. Obviously we asked her to share more on this link up, and she responded, “Rocky… What can I say? Magic. He was actually the first one to come to Paris who I made pieces for. The reason why it really worked well with A$AP Rocky is because I took his dental impression the night I saw him and the next day, I delivered the piece.”
“Actually he was only in Paris for two days, and I think he didn’t quite understand how I managed to do it so fast. I don’t know… I must have made six or seven pieces in less than 24 hours. I took the dental impressions at 4 AM, and by 6 or 7 PM, he had them. I think that speed impressed him.” It’s true that Cohen’s insanely fast turnarounds is one of her more talked about traits.
Despite their relationship, she didn’t actually name Rocky as the most GOATed person she’s designed a set of grills for, instead saying, “It’s hard but I’m going to have to say Beyoncé or Rihanna. Honestly, both of them. They are both unique, they each have something different.”
We then asked her to expand on her link up with Rihanna, who Dolly’s designed multiple pieces for, and she explained, “I really took time to understand her. I spoke with her a bit - she showed me what she liked, I checked her tattoos, I checked a lot of things, and then I suggested the first grill that she wore was an AK47, and she loved it. It was a pleasure, a real pleasure to work for her.”
If you want to get your hands on a set Dolly Cohen’s grailed grills yourself, then hit up her website. And if you’d prefer to sip on ice rather than wear it, head to Selfridges from February 17th where you’ll find Dolly Cohen’s link up with Chivas Regal being exclusively sold at a limited pop-up. The collaboration will be available to buy exclusively at Selfridges from Monday February 17th.
Featured image via Mercedes©
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