At the PAD London space of Second Petale Jewellery Gallery, Nada Ghazal this week unveils Echoes, her first full collection of high jewellery. ‘For me, high jewellery opens a different kind of creative freedom,’ the Lebanese jewellery designer explains. ‘I can work with bigger stones, explore larger scales and more intricate settings, and take an idea much further.’
Ghazal is based between London and Beirut. Her jewellery is made in the latter, in an atelier she opened a year after launching her eponymous business in 2003. Stocked at, amongst other addresses, Dover Street Market London, Ghazal’s designs are known for their organic shapes and sculptural volumes. Goldwork is a speciality, in particular the velvet-like brushed finish that lends her designs an ageless quality.
The idea to branch into high jewellery came early on in Ghazal’s career. ‘When I started my jewellery line, I sold directly to clients through my own boutique. About ten years into the journey, I found that my clients themselves were inspiring me to create more exclusive pieces,’ she says. As circumstances in Lebanon shifted, she explains, so did her creative output and business’ focus. This year marks a return to the high jewellery fold.
‘The opportunity to present at PAD London with Second Petale Jewellery Gallery has given me the chance to explore high jewellery again,’ Ghazal says. ‘At the same time, our new London boutique has brought me back into direct conversations with clients, and I am seeing a real appetite for one-off and exclusive pieces. It feels like the right moment to bring this side of my work back.’ Echoes, the collection, expresses shapes familiar to Ghazal aficionados in gold and with ‘exceptional stones’, she enthuses.
Among the offering is Fuse, a pair of earrings which since Ghazal first dreamt up in 2016 and which quickly became one of her personal favourites. ‘The idea was to make my ear look as though it had been dipped in gold and diamonds,’ the designer explains. ‘I loved the effect so much that I ended up wearing the earrings constantly.’ A new high jewellery take on Fuse is dotted with larger champagne hued diamonds. ‘There is something very personal about revisiting a piece I loved and allowing that original idea to transform into something new,’ Ghazal sums up. ‘In that sense, the earrings are quite literally an echo of something I created and wore years ago, a memory returning in a different form.’