News

Jun 14, 2023

Annoushka, London’s Queen Of Charm Jewelry Is Eyeing The US

Annoushka Ducas' personal charm bracelet I'm looking through the rock crystal

Annoushka Ducas' personal charm bracelet

I'm looking through the rock crystal windows of a tiny, ruby-set 18ct gold ski lift gondola, complete with minute skis, and fully hinged doors that open on either side. "If we can make something open, spin or move, we will," laughs Annoushka Ducas OBE, one of London's most prominent jewelers and the official Queen of Charms in the jewelry world. Next to the gondola, is a fully articulated gold fish with a glittering diamond spine; four gleaming pearls in a diamond pea pod; a diamond-encrusted dog's paw, a gold rendition of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, the word SEX picked out in black diamonds from which dangles a pair of shapely legs, and a tiny globe that spins on its diamond axis, traversed by a jet plane traveling from Hong Kong to London.

I'm looking at Ducas' own personal charm bracelet, which charts a life full of travel, family and entrepreneurship with her characteristic humor and quite incredible attention to detail. In 18ct gold and gemstones, it tells the story of a designer and businesswomen who is living a full life, in a miniature biography designed to evolve with the twists in our paths.

Rihanna pictured wearing her Annoushka charm bracelet, designed with A$AP Rocky.

"The fish is for my mother's business," she tells me, referencing her original business inspiration, "she supplied fish to top restaurants in Asia and asked me what she could buy for 60 chefs she was working with. I was living in Hong Kong at the time and found a supplier in the Philippines to make some tiny fish cufflinks Id designed. They would only produce a batch of 120 though, so I sold 60 to my mother and the rest to Harvey Nichols."

Those cufflinks would become Links of London, a solid silver gift and jewelry company that pioneered affordable luxury in the 1990s, mining a lucrative niche in beautifully made, playful silver giftware. When Ducas sold the business in 2006, it had 50 stores around the world and a reputation as the in thing for heartfelt gifts and silver jewelry.

A lifelong charm collector, three years later, she would launch Annoushka, specializing in charms and jewelry in 18kt gold, for "its patina, gold jewelry feels like an old friend after a while," she says. More precious, more a part of its wearer perhaps: "I have always subconsciously designed for my stage in life. I started with cufflinks for men, then when I had children I noticed a gap in the market for christening gifts. Gold is much more flattering with age than silver, and as Elizabeth Taylor said, as you get older you need bigger jewelry."

London-based jewelry designer Annoushka Ducas, OBE.

In 2020, she packaged a decade of expertise as My Life in Charms, an offering with universal appeal, complete with its own podcast in which Ducas interviews personalities for their own sets of charms. In real life, clients have in person-or online consultation with the designer, who then tells their life story through a set of charms, presented in a book-style jewelry box complete with a scrapbook of material supplied by the client. It's a heartfelt offering that has seen worldwide success, no less with couple-of-the-moment Rihanna and A$AP Rocky: "he was very clear on the order in which he wanted the charms on her bracelet, it was a touching process," she confides, on the bracelet she created for the Barbadian superstar.

Charms, talismans and amulets have always been part of human adornment. "For me, jewelry isn't so much about what it looks like, more about what it means," she says. From pet names to a tiny Indian bridal elephant complete with jeweled saddle, a miniature gun with a single, Russian roulette diamond (a collaboration with The Vampire's Wife), her imagination is limitless and anything goes — as long as charms are worn in odd numbers. "I always recommend, three, five or seven. It's a great privilege to commit someone's life to jewelry in this way, I love seeing how people wear them. More recently, we're seeing charm necklaces rather than bracelets, with the biggest charms at the bottom and the smallest at the top, like a cluster."

The sense of fun and very British humor spills over into the brand's other jewelry lines, with charm huggies, gemstone pendants, statement stones in Deco ring settings and a line of engagement, bridal and eternity rings that enables clients to create their own stack. Always, there is the same sense of playfulness, of a highly personal expression of identity and creativity: "jewelry should work hard for you, not just be something you wear on a particular day," she says, of her own engagement stack that inspired the bridal collection, and to which she decided to add a jacket after 32 years.

Pieces from the Knuckle chain collection

"We're always evolving, always changing. Our clients are getting younger, it's exciting to think about the next generation and how their needs are different to what ours were." To this end, her four children are all taking their turn on the company's Board of Directors, providing the new-gen perspective that will ensure the brand can reach out to fresh markets.

And in a new post-Covid world, those new markets are all-important. Annoushka grew swiftly to be a $10 million brand through flagships in London and Hong Kong, a thriving online business and a few outlets in the US. The team is now aiming to double that figure, and has several new US stockiest in the pipeline; but "the goal isn't world domination," she says, "this is a very personal product, a very personal business."

As befits such a business, the company works to support and mentor young people through the Prince's Trust, a charity started by the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles, to help disadvantaged young people. "I lost my mother when I was 23, but in the short time she was here, she gave me the confidence that has seen me through my career. Many young people do not have that," says Ducas. Annoushka runs Brilliant Breakfast sessions for young people through the charity, both digitally and in-person, as well as a microfinance scheme to enable women in Ethiopia, where she sources opals, to set up businesses.

A gold a ruby rose charm by Annoushka

Annoushka's latest collection is Knuckle, which is at first glance a departure from the soulful and whimsical world of her charms, to something altogether more streamlined and punchy. Look more closely however, and it has all the Annoushka hallmarks, not least, attention to detail in the proprietary chain designed by Ducas and made by an Italian master craftsman. Simple 14ct links are connected by a curvaceous 'knuckle' to created a fluid, pleasingly heavy chain that can be customized with other pieces as part of a system of transformable jewelry that includes rings, earrings and of course, space for charms.

"This is our first unembellished collection," she says, "it's all about the material, but still playful and versatile. 99% of chains are made by machine these days, it's a very different feeling to be able to make chain by hand." I can't hep thinking that Elizabeth Taylor would have approved of this chunky chain, in a collection feels right for women who already have plenty of charms on the bracelet, just as much as younger clients who are just getting started on their collections. All hail the Queen of Charms, long may she reign.

The Knuckle collection is available in-store and online at Annoushka.com from May 20. The upcoming season of the podcast A Life in Seven Charms is currently in production and will be out soon.