JEWELLRY:Designer Tom Binns's career has taken him from east Belfast to Wonderland, via the White House, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER

BELFAST-BORN Tom Binns made headlines last year when Michelle Obama chose to wear his Pearls in Peril necklace to the Governor’s Ball at the White House. “She and the president walked out looking like stars,” says Binns. The event took place on the same night as the Oscars, but the first lady stole the front pages.

“I was doing alright before she wore my necklace,” he says. “I’d already had Vogue covers and lots of editorial, but her wearing the piece really endorsed what I’ve been saying all along: that the preciousness of something is not really that relevant, it’s what it does for you. Those pearls weren’t precious but they looked precious because of the way she wore them.

“Your jewellery is as important, if not more important, than the clothes you wear,” he says. “People may not remember her dress, but they will remember the necklace – her adornment.”

After 30 years in business, Binns is hardly an overnight success. “But what I have done has changed the way people see jewellery,” he says. “I’m not the first to rethink the way jewellery should be worn. Coco Chanel did it with her pearls and so did Miriam Haskell.”

Binns cut his teeth in London, where he collaborated with Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren. He then moved to New York and on to LA. In 2006 he was named accessory designer of the year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and recently created two limited-edition collections inspired by Tim Burton’s film Alice in Wonderland for Disney.

Other tie-ins include ranges by Stella McCartney and Sue Wong. Binns’s Signature designs carry hefty price tags, while the Couture pieces have more pocket-friendly prices, ranging from €68 to €205.

“With Alice I had to think within the parameters of Disney. While it was a fun project, I thought Alice, the character, was a pain,” he says. “I was far more interested in characters like Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the hookah-smoking Caterpillar.”

Binns claims not to be interested in fashion. “I’m far more interested in the engineering back end, its construction, how someone will wear it, how it fits to the body. What I do is not art, but it is a related art.”

Tom Binns’s Signature range is available at Harvey Nichols, Dublin; Tom Binns’s Couture range is available from Brown Thomas, Dublin