Simply Abu Dhabi XXVIII

9 1 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I Your brand doesn’t opt for celebrity placements or brand ambassadors – what is the reason behind this choice? When I was working with an Australian pearl company, they approached many stars from the Academy Awards red carpet. I designed an Art Deco-style collection for the awards one year, and it worked well as a celebrity placement. But it was a time when celebrities were affordable. Now, in my opinion, unless you don’t have a muse or a face for a campaign, it makes no sense to give your jewellery to celebrities because it doesn’t really help increase sales. So, instead of using money on celebrities, I prefer buying stones and doing something unique. What do you want to express with your jewellery? The first thing I want to express with my jewellery is my passion for it. In fact, I like to repeat this saying: “When you buy something from an artist you’re buying more than an object. You are buying hundreds of hours of errors and experimentation. You’re buying years of frustration and moments of pure joy. You’re not buying just one thing, you are buying a piece of heart, a piece of soul… a small piece of someone else’s life.” I want to express myself with my jewellery to let my customers enter my dream world and my soul. Please tell us more about your new pieces. What is their main inspiration and their major characteristics? The collection is an extension of my three main collections. Naturalia is inspired by animals, nature, flowers and natural phenomena, Thalassa is devoted to sea creatures and everything related to the sea, and Historica – my personal favourite – is inspired by architecture and great people of the past. In fact, with the new collection I can explore and get to know many great people from the past, like Maria Antoinette or Casanova, or the Moghul dynasty. With the Breakfast in Jaipur collection I want to express the beauty of feminine icons like Audrey Hepburn, but with Rajasthani craftsmanship. These pieces are my most expensive ones because I use decorations developed during the Moghul era. The other piece, a world premiere, is the Thalassa collection embracing the ultimate in multifunctionality. It will be officially launched during Baselworld 2018. The shell ring is a masterpiece. It is inspired by scallop shells and at first glance you see that it is a ring, and you can remove the shell and wear the ring on its own. But when you open the shell you find a chain with sea creature pendants, and there is a separate piece you can easily attach to the shell which looks like a fish skull and which becomes a brooch.