Celebrity Life

It’s the first time Dior has launched a watch and jewellery line together.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

It’s the first time Dior has launched a watch and jewellery line together.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

The inspiration is in the name. The Berlin Collection, the latest collection from bespoke gemstone jeweller Minka Jewels, condenses the decadence, glamour and architectural landscape of Berlin's roaring twenties into a collection of gorgeous cocktail rings crafted in 18k yellow gold, featuring a single gemstone in an octagonal-cut.

True to designer Lucy Crowther's style, the rings are relatively minimalistic, making them versatile pieces that can transition easily from day to night. The opulence of the decade is in the central gemstone, rendered in a vibrant palette of tanzanites, tourmalines and sapphires.

As a finishing touch, each ring comes with a feather engraved inside the body of the ring — a subtle nod to the glamour of Berlin and its world-famous cabaret scene. We speak to designer Lucy Crowther about her new collection and her inspirations.

Can you tell us a bit about how you became to be a jewellery designer?

Becoming a jewellery designer started really with being surrounded by the gemstones themselves, working as a stone trader in London taught me so much about the quality of the gemstones and I wanted to be able to make a platform for them to be worn. I used to work for a very talented textile designer, Madeline Weinrib and everything was about colour so this has really stayed with me. Colour definitely is a powerful communication tool it can affect your mood and invoke emotions. Did you know the ancient Egyptians used sun-activated solarium rooms constructed with coloured glass for therapeutic purposes?

Do you remember the first piece of jewellery you designed?

I remember the first piece of jewellery I designed very well and have it still. I made an articulated turtle pendant, all the legs moved separately so it looked like it was swimming when worn.

Tell us a bit about your latest collection, Berlin, and where that inspiration came from? Why Berlin in particular?

The Berlin Collection is all about being big and bold with a flash of colour. Inspired by the bold architectural landscape of the city and the time known as the golden twenties (1920’s) where creatives and intellectuals from all over the world gathered in Berlin. It became the intellectual and creative centre of Europe. This was the time of the Bauhaus movement in art and design and the cabaret scene really took off- Josephine Baker introduced the Charleston dance and famously danced in little more than a string of pearls and a skirt made of 16 rubber bananas.

‘The city had a jewel-like sparkle’ Baker said of Berlin - Inside each ring is a hand-engraved feather, a nod to the cabaret girls and the glamour they helped bring.

Both my brothers lived in Berlin for a long time so I have spent a lot of time there over the years.

In this collection, you've also focused on the octagonal/ emerald-cut for the gemstones. Why did you choose this particular cut?

I chose to use octagon cut gemstones in this collection because it reflected the linear, geometrical forms of the Bauhaus movement. The gold then compliments this with its block-like form surrounding the stones. My last collection, Athena was all about cushion cut gemstones so this new collection I wanted something a bit more modern and linear.

How did you go about choosing the colours of the gemstones used in the collection?

The colours in this collection are really to do with what quality stones I was seeing at the time, I love contrasting colours so yellow gold with blue or green always stands out beautifully. The stones themselves have to be eye clean of inclusions and have a great pop of colour. ‘The city had a jewel like sparkle’ - I wanted to reflect quote of Josephine Baker, in this in this collection. Tourmalines for me have that stand out quality.

In a year where we've spent so much time under lockdown, do you feel that your creativity has been affected?

Lockdown has been tough on everyone, however I do feel incredibly grateful to have spent it in the English countryside where I have been surrounded by nature and felt like I have had more time to be creative. Production has taken a little bit longer than usual and having meetings via zoom with goldsmiths has been a little challenging but we have got there in the end.

What are you inspired by right now?

I feel very inspired by a company called Sky Diamond, they have created a technique of removing co2 from the atmosphere and creating diamonds from this, it goes beyond carbon neutral and is actually carbon negative, which is amazing. I will be working with them hopefully later this year and designing a collection formed around sustainability.

If you could only have one piece of jewellery, what would it be?

A ring with the most gorgeous gemstone set into it, maybe a bright pink spinel or an intense cornflower blue sapphire. Rings bring the wearer so much joy, I love appreciating the gemstones themselves and how they change in different lights.

The post Minka Jewels’ Berlin Collection Makes Cocktail Rings an Everyday Essential appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The incredible history of Van Cleef & Arpels is intertwined with some of the world’s most prominent and illustrious women of their time, as Allyson Klass finds out.

In 1895, Estelle Arpels, the daughter of a gems dealer, married Alfred Van Cleef, the son of a lapidary craftsman and diamond broker. The pair shared the same values of a sense of family, the spirit of innovation and a passion for precious stones. This would mark the beginning of their bejewelled destiny as it led to the birth of a maison in 1906 bearing both their names – Van Cleef & Arpels – at 22 Place Vendôme. The boutique still remains at this legendary address until today.

The business included Estelle’s brothers, Charles, Julien and Louis, all experienced gem traders. With the maison’s location across from the swanky Hotel Ritz, which boasted a well-heeled clientele ranging from aristocrats to business magnates from Europe and the US, word about the house’s exquisite jewels travelled beyond the continent quickly. Soon, leading women the world over were captivated. From the elegant 1920s through to the Jet Set era of the early ’70s, Van Cleef & Arpels won some of the most legendary names as patrons, and forever immortalised their individual styles into history’s most epic pieces – some of which the jeweller has continued to recreate over the years. Here are four ladies who shaped the world of high jewellery through Van Cleef & Arpels.

HSH Princess Grace of Monaco

In 1956, American actress Grace Kelly was named the Princess of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III. To celebrate their union, the prince visited the Van Cleef & Arpels boutique in New York and met with Louis Arpels, who convinced him that elegant pearls were befitting of his fiancee’s beauty. The exquisite suite chosen included a resplendent three-strand pearl necklace with diamond swirl motifs, three-strand pearl bracelet with diamond blossom motifs, pearl earrings featuring a swirl of baguette and marquise-shaped diamonds, and a diamond blossom ring with a pearl. A few months later, the jeweller was named the Patented supplier of the Principality of Monaco. The princess would be seen wearing this royal pearl parure on numerous occasions throughout her life.

A client of Van Cleef & Arpels before her engagement, Princess Grace enriched her collection over the years with the maison’s high jewellery pieces, which included bracelets, tiaras and clips. For casual occasions, she also loved wearing the house’s creations such as adorable animal clips from the La Boutique collection and Alhambra necklaces that she collected in various precious materials of coral, malachite and lapis lazuli.

Princess Faiza of Egypt

Born in Abdine Palace on Nov 8, 1923, Princess Faiza of Egypt was regarded as the most attractive of King Farouk’s five sisters. The lively, witty and rebellious royal was known for her fabulous taste in clothes and jewellery, favouring Parisian haute couture and joaillerie. Needless to say, Van Cleef & Arpels was her maison of choice when it came to jewellery.

Princess Faiza owned a number of noteworthy pieces created by the house, one of the most magnificent being a platinum Art Deco collaret featuring 10 drop-shaped Colombian emeralds – totalling 165 carats – set with diamonds in varying shapes and sizes. Designed in 1929 and modified in 1937, it was acquired for her in 1947 by an Egyptian court’s representative in France. The striking showpiece was worn by the fashion-forward princess as a court jewel and remained her property when she went into exile in Europe with her husband after the Egyptian revolution in 1952. Following her divorce, the princess took the necklace with her when she moved to California, where her mother Queen Nazli and sister Princess Fathia lived.

Another famous Van Cleef & Arpels piece that belonged to the princess is the double Clip Pivoine from 1938. It featured two peonies set in the famous Serti Mysterieux or Mystery Setting, which was inspired by the 19th-century Roman micro-mosaic technique. Patented in 1933 by Van Cleef & Arpels, the method revolutionised the art of setting precious stones as it enabled the gems to be fixed without the mount being visible, allowing the stones’ optimum brilliance to come through. The flower petals are set with 706 square-cut red rubies and 239 circular-cut and baguette-cut diamonds. Princess Faiza sold both brooches separately a few years before her death in 1994. While one of them is now in the Van Cleef & Arpels archives, the whereabouts of the second piece is unknown.

Equally impressive is a diamond bracelet from 1946 set with about 58 carats of round, baguette and emerald-cut diamonds. Fashioned to resemble a belt, the remarkable piece featured channel-set diamonds mimicking flowing fabric.

Wallis Simpson, The Duchess of Windsor

An important Van Cleef & Arpels client with very sharp taste, American socialite Wallis Simpson favoured simple, clean couture outfits that provided the perfect backdrop for her enviable jewellery collection. Over the years, her husband – the Duke of Windsor (also known as Edward VIII, the former King of the United Kingdom) – bought and customised many pieces from the maison as tokens of his love to her. Among these was a diamond and ruby bracelet with the inscription, “Hold tight 27.III.36” (gifted to Simpson a few months before his abdication) and a two-feather clip featuring Mystery Set rubies and diamonds for Christmas in 1936.

The Duke of Windsor also commissioned Van Cleef & Arpels to create the Cravate necklace with rubies and diamonds for the duchess’ 40th birthday in 1936. Its clasp was engraved with “My Wallis from her David, 19.VI.1936”. It is believed that Simpson had the necklace redesigned later by René Sim Lacaze, a prolific jewellery designer at Van Cleef & Arpels, to incorporate additional stones. The new platinum setting featured rows of intertwined rubies and diamonds, which ended in a spectacular cascade of more rubies.

The duchess is also said to have been the inspiration behind the house’s emblematic Zip necklace. Her favourite fashion designer, Elsa Schiaparelli, had started adding visible zip details to her pieces and the duchess suggested the utilitarian item’s bejewelled equivalent to Renée Puissant – the founding couple’s daughter and Artistic Director at Van Cleef & Arpels in the Art Deco decades. Designed to be worn either open around the neck, or closed to grace the wrist as a bracelet, the necklace that would later be synonymous with the maison was realised in the late 1930s.

Elizabeth Taylor, actress

Inspired by Venetian door knockers with a lion’s head and diamond-set mane forming the collar is the 1971 Barquerolles necklace. Set in yellow gold, the scintillating piece transforms into two bracelets and a brooch.

It was gifted by Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor, who wrote about the moment she first saw the piece: “I always know when something is right because my heart goes ‘click’ and my heart was clicking like a castanet when I saw this set. Richard loved it on me and he said, ‘Wow! You are so beautiful, nobody is going to believe you’re a grandmother.’”

This story was published in the March 2021 issue of Prestige Singapore.

The post Van Cleef & Arpels and The Royalty Who Wore Them appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

This is probably a world first. In celebration of the 100th year of the N°5 perfume, also possibly known as the most famous perfume in the world, Patrice Leguéreau, director of the Chanel Fine Jewellery Creation Studio, has created a high jewellery necklace inspired by the design of the iconic perfume bottle, showcasing a 55.55-carat custom-cut diamond.

The fragrance, composed in 1921 by Ernest Beaux and Gabrielle Chanel as the first "perfume for women with the scent of a woman" — is ubiquitous to all, and has been a mainstay in many of our bathroom shelves. Chanel's high jewellery began in 1932, when Mademoiselle Chanel created her one and only high jewellery collection called "Bijoux de Diamants".

This 2021, the launch of the Collection N°5 high jewellery celebrates these two treasured domains by the Maison. “Gabrielle Chanel approached these two universes with the same visionary values, focusing on audacity and the quest for excellence. I wanted to rediscover that creative gesture with this collection, which has been conceived like a journey through the meanderings of the N°5 perfume’s soul, from the architecture of the bottle to the olfactive explosion of the fragrance," says Leguéreau.

The zenith of the high jewellery collection is the extraordinary 55.55 necklace, named after the exceptional 55.55-carat diamond that is crafted as the ultimate tribute to the classic perfume.

While most jewellers will cut into a diamond rough with the goal of obtaining the biggest stone possible without compromising on clarity, Chanel's team took an unprecedented approach, setting themselves the mission to cut a perfectly proportioned diamond that weighed an exact 55.55 carats.

The result is a beautiful emerald cut diamond, 55.55-carats exactly, in D Flawless quality, set in 18-carat white gold and surrounded by 104 round diamonds and 42 baguette diamonds. In a display of creativity and style, the necklace comes with a diamond-set topper, and the silhouette of the bottle is shaped out of pear-shape and marquise-shaped diamonds cut in different sizes. No detail is overlooked, even the fastener is shaped like the lucky number 5.

This unique necklace, however, is not meant for sale, with Chanel deciding to keep the necklace 55.55 in its archives.

The post Chanel Celebrates 100 Years of the N°5 Perfume with a 55.55-Carat Diamond Necklace appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Thirty years after Fred’s ruby and diamond necklace shot to fame on the neck of the beguiling Julia Roberts in the movie Pretty Woman, the jewellery piece has inspired a fully-fledged collection that embodies freedom, audacity, and young love. We speak to Valérie Samuel, artistic director at Fred, about the making of a new classic collection.

Of the many memorable moments in the 1990s movie Pretty Woman, one of the most successful romantic comedies ever to have graced the silver screen, one scene, in particular, has left a stronger impression than the rest. When Julia Roberts’ character Vivian Ward steps out in a floor-length crimson red gown and Richard Gere’s Edward Lewis presents her with a ruby and diamond necklace, it’s perhaps the moment when the world was introduced to Roberts’ vivacious, wholesome laughter for the first time. A child-like wonder and glee permeate her character as, wonderstruck, she reaches out for the necklace, Gere playfully snaps the box shut over her fingers and she bursts heartily into laughter.

A turning point in the movie plot, the scene is also pivotal as it also propelled not only Roberts to fame, but also the name of the jeweller who lent the necklace to the Pretty Woman production team: Fred.

The brand’s founder, Fred Samuel, had been a jeweller since 1936, but it wasn’t until 1966 that the name was established by Fred Samuel’s eldest son. With shops already in Paris and Monaco, Fred’s first US boutique in the United States opened 1977 in Los Angeles on Rodeo Drive in 1977, right in the heart of Beverly Hills and well within the reach of Hollywood celebrities, forging intimate bonds with many within the cinema industry.

It wasn’t, therefore, too unusual for Fred to received a visit from a movie production team seeking to borrow a piece of jewellery for a leading actress, but it soon surprised everyone how significant that piece of jewellery had became.

“We had no idea that the necklace of ruby and diamond hearts they chose would become a special part of the movie,” recalls Valérie Samuel, the granddaughter of Fred Samuel and the brand’s current artistic director, “but it’s unquestionably one of our house’s fondest memories.”

Inevitably, the necklace came to be named Pretty Woman, and it’s served as a major source of inspiration for the brand, reinterpreted many times over the years. But it wasn’t until two years ago that Samuel and her team considered designing a full collection as a tribute.

Making of the Pretty Woman high jewellery collection

To Samuel, the rubellite was an obvious choice for the important high-jewellery and jewellery collection, though it posed many challenges. “It brought many constraints,” says Samuel. “We had to find uncut stones that met all the Fred quality criteria, and we also had to find enough of them in the same intense pink-red hue that I picked, so as to provide jewellery for mixing and matching.

“The toughest constraint was that there were only three mines in the world producing rubellite. So, it took us more than two years to source and bring together the finest and purest of these stones.”

But perseverance paid off. The Pretty Woman collection is defined by the uniquely reddish-pink rubellite stones from the tourmaline family, which shift from magenta pink to purplish-red in the light.

The design is also distinctive. In the hollow of each open-worked diamond heart is a second heart-shaped rubellite, elegantly positioned slightly off-centre in an alternating fashion, evoking an unencumbered attitude and radiating youthful energy.

“Even though the collection is inspired by the necklace in the movie,” Samuel explains, “my vision was to capture a distinctive aesthetic – the heart within a heart – as well as by a mindset with Fred’s typical joie de vivre and sense of freedom.”

Samuel’s favourite piece from the collection is the Audacious necklace. The string of brilliant- and fancy-cut diamonds, to which eight rubellite and diamond hearts are attached, is six jewellery pieces in one. The transformative nature of the high-jewellery piece embodies her entire philosophy for the Pretty Woman collection. “It’s several jewellery pieces in one, with multiple ways of being worn and is a feat as technically advanced as it’s mischievously non-conformist,” she says.

“Six of them can be detached, one by one, to create as many different pieces and wearing options: earrings, a brooch, pin and chain necklace. Transformed in this way, the necklace, comprising 554 diamonds totalling 20 carats, and eight rubellites totalling 14 carats, forms a sophisticated and brilliant choker for daily wear.”

Since re-joining the company in 2017, Samuel has designed with the free spirit in mind. Her designs within Fred’s signature collections – which include Force 10, Chance Infinie, Pain de Sucre and Success – have opened up the brand to new silhouettes, styles and declinations, while always respecting Fred’s DNA. “I felt as if I were opening new territories of the brand’s expressions,” she says. “Jewellery to be worn every day, by the free spirit, thanks to the versatility in the pieces for mixing and matching.”

Everyday fine jewellery pieces

The Pretty Woman collection thus comprises not only important high-jewellery pieces, but also fine jewellery for everyday wear.

“I wanted to give this major new collection for Fred an energy that’s joyful, stylish and relaxed at the same time. And to allow women the scope to make it all their own, to experiment with it, to dare wearing multiple pieces at once,” says Samuel.

In the fine jewellery line, the striking heart-within-a- heart design is expressed in pink or white gold, in smooth, semi-paved or sparkling in a show-coloured setting, from necklaces sized from mini to XL, chains, ear studs and earrings, rings and bracelets.

Last but not least, the collection needed a muse, and who better to embody the new collection than the niece of the leading lady who captured the hearts of millions in the original movie. “From the beginning, it was our conviction that only the actress Emma Roberts, niece of Julia, could be our Pretty Woman ambassador today,” says Samuel. “It was an obvious choice: she captures perfectly the way of love that the Maison Fred wanted to portray: unconditional, spontaneous, audacious.”

The post Fred’s Pretty Woman Collection for the Pretty Strong, Independent Woman appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Chanel Celebrates Its Centenary of the N°5 Perfume With the First Ever High Jewellery Collection Dedicated To a Fragrance.

The post Chanel Pays Homage To the Iconic N°5 Perfume With a Dedicated High Jewellery Collection appeared first on LUXUO.

Nature renderd in rare gems – from the brand's signature panther to exotics plants.

The post The flora and fauna that has inspired Cartier’s jewellery designs appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Nature renderd in rare gems – from the brand's signature panther to exotics plants.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

Nature renderd in rare gems – from the brand's signature panther to exotics plants.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

When I asked Victoire de Castellane what it felt like to have celebrated 20 years at the helm of Dior’s jewellery and watch department, she implied, quite offhandedly, that it was a short time.

“I hope to be there for its 40th anniversary,” she said. But perhaps she’s right: 20 years can seem such a short time when the Dior archives are so rich and when there’s still so much to take inspiration from.

De Castellane had worked alongside Karl Lagerfeld for 14 years before she was tapped by Dior to develop and launch the brand’s jewellery division. “[Lagerfeld] taught me to work according to the identities of a house and to work seriously while having fun,” she says of her time learning under him.

Since de Castellane’s arrival at Dior, she’s found inspiration in all the house’s identities and developed themes that we now know and love: the garden, the grand balls and couture. If you’ve ever had the chance to read the beautiful narratives that are written for each of the collections, each is like a new chapter of the founder, Christian Dior’s, legacy. It’s an important element for de Castellane, who says, “I like to tell the stories of the identities of the house and transform them into jewellery.”

J'aime Gem Dior, et toi?

The latest chapter is Gem Dior, an original collection of seven watches and 11 pieces of jewellery that takes its name from the high-jewellery collection launched by the maison just two years ago. We all know Dior’s famous tagline “J’adior”, a play on the French j’adore. Gem, similarly, is a euphonious nod to j’aime, French for “I love”.

The style of the collection is something de Castellane calls “abstract-organic”, a mix of elements that can be found in both couture and in nature. “I wanted to move on to abstract, but it’s always an organic abstract that breaks with figurative creation,” she says. “I saw plates of tourmaline in octagonal and irregular shapes that inspired me for the watch dial. I’d also seen colour samples in the Dior archives that reminded me of the idea of strata.”

From this union of nature and couture, Gem Dior is distinctively nothing like you’ve seen from Dior before. The watches, with their unique case designs inspired by the natural shape of minerals, is particularly unique. As a completely new collection, it’s also a complete departure from the shape and form of the La D de Dior watches, which has been a mainstay in Dior’s collection for so long.

The new collection was a long time in the making, according to de Castellane. “I’d had the idea in mind for a long time and I was just waiting for the right moment. This is a new chapter for Dior jewellery and Dior watchmaking. Gem is an original watch, closer to a jewel, and doesn’t parasitise the La D de Dior watch.”

Gemstones are always the starting point for de Castellane. But whereas the La D de Dior watches had the dial set with a single precious stone, Gem Dior was about the colour of gemstones, and how they all came together. She loves gemstones of all kinds, so when I ask about her favourite gemstones to work with, she replies, “All of them together.”

The Gem Dior collection is exactly that – all the gemstones together. “For me, colour in jewellery is very important and I adore using all the stones, especially hard stones,” de Castellane says. “We might say that there’s also a coherence in my work in relation to the different collections. We can also discover families of stones, depending on the jewels and watches.”

The way the bracelets in the collection are designed is an absolute statement in creativity. De Castellane drew inspiration for it from the way in which Christian Dior pinned fabric swatches from his haute couture shows on to sheets of paper – ribbons of colour pinned against each other, a commotion of hues that’s chaotic yet elegant and sophisticated.

Forming the asymmetrical geometry of the pieces posed a technical challenge to the team at Dior. “It was necessary to work on the airiness, the structure and the comfort of the pieces in addition to the construction," de Castellane says. “And, of course, to find the right stones.”

A new timepiece design

The focal point of the Gem Dior collection is perhaps the yellow-gold watch, with its octagonal case with cut-out sides set with turquoise and diamonds around an intense green malachite dial. The colourful affair extends to the bracelet, on which slices of the ornamental gems are brought together, much like the strata of sedimentary rock, an asymmetrical wave that’s designed to be worn on the wrist as if it’s an open cuff.

“I’ve used malachite, lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl and cornaline. There’s some pink opal and tiger’s eye. I’ve selected stones and coloramas according to what I’ve found naturally. With the colour groups, I played on a multi-coloured effect, but I also considered the colour shadings,” says
de Castellane.

Six other versions of the Gem Dior watch are available: in steel and black mother-of-pearl, in pink gold and full diamond pavé, in gold and steel and lapis lazuli. The watches also come with an interchangeable black leather strap for a relatively more toned-down look.

The strata motif is carried over to the jewellery, with the highlight also being the coloured gemstone pieces. The yellow-gold ring and bracelet comes with deliberately misaligned links in gemstones of blues and greens – lapis lazuli, malachite and tourmaline – and a sprinkling of diamond, for a wonderfully cool-toned piece that has just the perfect touch of glamour.

The post Victoire de Castellane on the Gem Dior Collection appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

On the cover of Time magazine this February is poet Amanda Gorman, who made the headlines when she performed the powerful poem, The Hill We Climb, during the Inauguration Day ceremony for President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris. Gorman's impactful poem made an impression, as did the vibrant red headband that she wore around her braids. On the cover of Time, she's wearing a choker styled as a tiara, in a portraiture that's very much inspired by Maya Angelou.

The choker Gorman wore is none other than Khiry's Khartoum Torc Embellished choker necklace, designed by the rising star designer Jameel Mohammed, whose afrofuturist vision and beautiful jewellery pieces that celebrate the culture and heritage of African diaspora is the brand to know right now.

Khiry is also the latest brand to join Net-a-Porter's Vanguard, the online fashion retailer's mentorship programme that highlights emerging designer talent. Khiry was introduced to the Net-a-Porter team by jewellery designer Matthew Harris of Mateo, and the Net-a-Porter team immediately felt a connection.

"Jameel is an extremely talented designer, with his own unique point of view and style," says Libby Page, Senior Fashion Market Editor at Net-a-Porter. "He uses inspiration from many different sources to form a collection that champions both diversity and change. As a global online retailer, we have the expertise to nurture brands and in this instance, we were able to introduce Jameel to three sponsors; Muzo, Hearts on Fire and The Betts Group who have consigned materials for the collection. This initiative is absolutely the first of many."

For Page, the designers they're looking for must have a distinct DNA and design aesthetic. "They truly have to be brands we are behind as a business and believe will resonate with our global customer," she says.

Mohammed had only worked with gold-plated fashion jewellery before partnering with Net-a-Porter and his exclusive collection with them debuts on Net-a-Porter this month. We speak to Khiry's founder Jameel Mohammed on his debut fine jewellery collection with Net-a-Porter, how he got his brand off the ground and the kind of impact his brand has on the world right now.

Jameel, tell us about your very first jewellery design.

The first jewellery I ever made was in Legos when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school, and then I started making necklaces from knotted rope, macrame, and leather cord. The first piece that defined my brand KHIRY as an Afrofuturist luxury brand was the Khartoum Nude Bangle. That really set the tone for both my design signatures, as ongoing parts of the brands aesthetic, and our mission statement — our reason for existing.

Did you see design as a career from the beginning? What made you decide to study political science (as opposed to design/ fashion etc)?

Not from the very beginning. I actually, luckily, had an aunt who had a friend who had worked and made good money designing for other companies. As a kid growing up in the Midwest, art and creativity didn’t seem like tenable ways of actually sustaining yourself, but my aunt dissuaded me of that notion and said that I could make a living in that industry. Now to the reason I chose to study political science—and not design. At that early age, as I was preparing to take the reins of my own life, there were parts of me that were not comfortable with design being the only thing I could do or the only thing I would have the credentials for. The other part of it is that political science training was really instrumental in my ability to form complex concepts and synthesise distinct experiences, cultural traditions, and visions of the future into a singular expression. It gave me the historical background to understand the context for my work.

What is the meaning behind Khiry and what does Afro-futurism mean to you?

KHIRY is my middle name. It’s Swahili for extremes in fortune and health. To me Afrofuturism is about creating space in the present to envision the means by which Black people and culture will not only survive into the future but also achieve liberation, which is so much the fundamental project of Blackness internationally. It also imagines the broader context that that liberation would sit within—by imagining the liberation of black people you have to think about what kind of world would instantiate and support that liberation. For me it’s really important to spend time in the now thinking about how to design those outcomes in the future, and also reflecting on the past and how it has gotten us to this time and place.

Who and what inspires Khiry? Where do you turn to find inspiration?

I’m inspired by cultural production throughout Africa and its diaspora. I am particularly inspired by the generations of Black artists and activists who have gone before, because implicitly their work was aimed at creating space for themselves and their posterity.

I wanted to touch on the conversation you had with a white CEO who told you luxury brands were only born in Milan and Paris. How did it make you feel then? Did it discourage you or fuel you?

I think at that point it was mostly fuel. because to me it was so clearly and demonstrably false based on my actual experiences and I knew that there were huge swathes of other people out there who would find that sentiment equally ridiculous-and not just ridiculous but an expression of a cultural authority that has existed so long that it hasn’t been frequently questioned, especially in the minds of folk who wield that power. so in that moment it was clear that this was an opportunity from a business standpoint and that this was necessary from a cultural standpoint. and when those two things aligned, it was clear that there was nothing else that I wanted to do more than that.

Do you think luxury has changed since then?

Yes. I think historical luxury brands are increasingly aware that the world is changing and that people of all backgrounds are demanding that the institutions they support further the cause of equity instead of replicating the inequities of the past.

How does it feel to be part of Net-a-Porter's Vanguard?

It feels great. It feels like a total affirmation of what I envisioned from that day [in Japan] of deciding what the brand would be focused on and seeing even then, at that initial stage, the potential that this could have to resonate with the world. I wanted to create pieces that were unquestionably, indisputably luxurious. And now: having the support of such a leader in the luxury space to introduce pieces in our Fine jewelry range which totally expand the brand’s offerings to the highest echelons of design fabrication is totally heartening.

Who would you love to see wearing Khiry? Why?

I think the conceit of the brand has always been to demonstrate to the world the breadth and the depth of culture and experience within the global Black diaspora. For that reason, we really love dressing folks from a broad array of backgrounds – we like to think of the brand as a place where an emerging artist can find a piece to celebrate their trajectory, or where an elected official can find a piece to signify their assent to office, and where there’s no contradiction: it can be the same piece. When I started out it was hard to imagine, but now we are lucky enough to count many globally prominent folks of distinct backgrounds as clients and supporters.

If you were not a jewellery designer, what would you be?

I don’t think I am a jewellery designer actually haha. I would lean further into one of the various creative pursuits that allowed me to explore jewellery and to build a brand in this industry. I’ve always drawn and used two-dimensional art as a way of expressing ideas; I’m also currently working on larger sculptural works, so maybe more three-dimensional works. I feel like if I wasn’t designing jewellery I would lean more into those directions, or maybe I would go to law school.

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