Metropolis (1927): From Silver Screen to Silver Jewelry — The Nvll + Void Metropolis Collection
Fritz Lang’s science-fiction landmark Metropolis released in 1927 constructed a visual world unlike any other: monumental towers rising into the clouds, subterranean machines grinding beneath the city, and a stark contrast between elite luxury and worker turmoil. This cinematic universe remains a rich source of inspiration for designers. For Nvll + Void, the film’s architecture, symbolism, and materiality form the foundation of their Metropolis Collection — turning that century-old vision into modern, wearable statements.
In Metropolis, the city itself is a character. Its elevated highways, steel-framed skyscrapers, gleaming metallic surfaces and geometric repetition convey both triumph and tension. The collection channels this aesthetic through jewellery with strong visual lines, engineered proportions and textural references to industry. At the same time, it pays tribute to the film’s themes: the impact of modernisation, the human condition inside the machine, and the interplay of structure and soul.
Image Courtesy: Automachination
Architectural Jewellery, Re-imagined
The Metropolis Collection doesn’t simply echo the film’s look; it translates its architectural language into discrete pieces. Through recycled sterling silver, bold forms and purposeful finishes, each design reflects a fragment of a future-city repurposed for the body. The hex-nut motif — a recurring man-made, functional form — becomes the visual anchor, representing the layered systems and connections underlying urban growth.
Signature Styles in the Collection
These earrings use the hex-nut as both graphic shape and symbolic device. They dangle like components of machinery, paying homage to the hands and tools in Metropolis’s under-city, while reflecting the film’s vertical lines and industrial elegance. Nvll+Void
A ring grounded in structure: the hex-nut motif wraps around the finger, referencing bolts and connectors that hold a modern city together. The shape evokes stability, repetition and engineered coherence — just as the metropolis in the film holds its society together.
The centerpiece of the collection. This ring crystallises the film’s futuristic skyline into form: broad band, tapered edges, sleek stone detail (such as black zirconia) and polished silver surfaces. It channels skyscraper silhouettes and mechanical precision in wearable fashion.
A more compact version of the motif, these earrings maintain the hex-nut aesthetic but focus on everyday wearability. They embody the collection’s dual nature: architectural and accessible, sculptural yet wearable.
These hoops translate the collection’s architectural references into circular form — echoing the circular gears, machines and repeated elements seen in the film. The hoops unify pattern, motion, and industrial influence in a loop that frames the face rather than the skyline.
Why This Collection Resonates Today
Nearly a century after Metropolis, the questions the film raises remain pressing: How does modernisation shape identity? What happens when technology and humanity intersect? The Metropolis Collection by Nvll + Void addresses these questions not with words but with form. The hex-nut motif becomes metaphor: the small piece that holds it all together; the ring, hoop and dangler become micro-architectures of style.
Materials and finishing matter. Recycled sterling silver connects past to present, while the textured and polished surfaces mirror the film’s interplay of shadow and light. The result is jewellery that doesn’t just decorate — it embodies story and structure.
Metropolis imagined the future of the city. Nvll + Void brings that future to your body.