Inspired by Colour: Sunita Nahata on Couture, Creativity and Colombian Emeralds
Hong Kong-based jewellery designer Sunita Nahata has become one of my go-to jewellers when I need to feel the uplifting and effervescent power of colour. Her collections feature vibrant gems from across the mineralogical rainbow, and, most recently, she was able to showcase some of her latest offerings at the Couture Show in Las Vegas. Here, I speak to the designer about her post-pandemic resurgence, her current love of kunzites, and aquamarine’s hold over her signature aesthetic.
The pandemic starved jewellery seekers like myself of access to the most exceptional works, but how did it feel for the designers themselves? This is the first question I posed to fine jeweller Sunita Nahata when we spoke following her return to Couture Las Vegas earlier this year. “This was our first show since the pandemic started, and there isn’t a better place to start again. Through months of hard work and an extensive creative process, I assembled unique new collections showcasing exotic stones from Paraiba tourmalines and emeralds to aquamarines and kunzites,” she says. To celebrate the occasion, Sunita presented multiple new collections in keeping with her colourful aesthetic and blend of classical and contemporary designs.
To ensure she keeps her finger on the pulse of the current trends, Nahata spends much of her time studying the market and predicting what her customers will covet in 6, 12 and 18 months. She uses social media – Instagram and Pinterest – to see new designs. However, she does this simply for ‘knowing what’s out there’, her creativity is mostly fed by the plethora of gemstones she has access to. In Sunita Nahata Fine Designs, the designer has her own gemstone manufacturing setup, additionally with the help of her broad network that she ‘inherited’ from her family who were in the gem business, she can source any gem or create her own cuts that allow her to experiment with design. This connection to a treasure trove of gemstones also provides another advantage… it allows Nahata to take some risks.
Sunita Nahata pendant and ring with green tourmalines, tsavorites, mother of pearl and diamonds in 18k white and yellow gold from the Mystic Green Tourmaline collection
There are always cases when designs don’t work out how we originally planned for and we must rework it, but it is always a fun learning experience to understand the different technicalities when constructing jewellery which is just as important as the design process.
So, in tribute to her brand’s creativity and uplifting use of colour, I am sharing highlights of my interview with Sunita based on the different gemstones that arose in our conversation. We cover beryls, spodumene, and tourmalines, which this year are animated with mother-of-pearl inlay, rose-cut diamonds and black onyx.
Kunzite
It is no accident that some of the latest jewels from Sunita Nahata are set with kunzites. The brand launched a small collection of jewellery set with this variety of the mineral spodumene last year. Thanks to the positive response, it was a “stone that I wanted to work with again,” according to Nahata. She continues: “The kunzites I found this year have a very electric pink tone, and I wanted to accent this with more coloured stones. I also used inlaid pink mother of pearl for the first time, and I am happy with how it turned out. The pinkish grey tones of the mother of pearl brought together the neon tone of the pink kunzite and the subtle hues of the accent stones around it”.
Katerina Perez wears the Sunita Nahata Cherry Blossom pendant and ring set with kunzite gemstones, aquamarine, tanzanite, pink tourmaline, pink mother of pearl and diamonds in 18k white gold
Paraiba Tourmaline
Aquamarines
If there’s a new Sunita Nahata Fine Designs collection, it’s almost guaranteed that beautiful blue aquamarines will feature somewhere, either in a starring role or as a complimentary gemstone. This year, the brand launched an Art Deco-inspired collection that places hand-selected, facetted aquamarines in intricate frameworks of diamonds and blue beryls.
Sunita Nahata Blue Lagoon ring with a 7.65 carat Santa Maria aquamarine, alexandrites, Paraiba tourmalines, pearls and diamonds in 18k white gold from the Blue Planet II collection
Aquamarines have a very soothing blue tone which I can never stop falling in love with. I can source some bigger-sized aquamarines, which allows me to create more extravagant designs with this gem. My Art Deco aquamarine collection is bold and lavish, I think it works well.
Emeralds
Emerald is my all-time favourite gemstone because of what it signifies for my family and forefathers. My father, grandfather and uncles were all heavily involved in the emerald trade in Jaipur, and my memory of them inspires me to create emerald jewellery in their honour.
Despite her enthusiasm, Sunita admits that mastering emeralds is a delicate art, as when designing jewellery with this precious gem, the thought and design process is quite different. One must be a lot more mindful with how they want to use the emeralds because of their relatively delicate nature, so Sunita goes through a long process of creating and reworking designs before she finalises one.
Sunita Nahata Crown necklace with a 9.42 carat Colombian emerald and diamonds in 18k white and yellow gold, from the Art Deco Emerald collection
Nahata’s family connection to emerald trading explains her deep-rooted respect for this particular variety of beryl. But as a native of Jaipur, India, she’s also able to draw on the history of emerald use in jewellery and their cultural significance, which provides an endless font of inspiration: “Mughal jewellery has a strong connection with Jaipur, which was and still is one of the core regions for manufacturing traditional Indian jewellery. I have always been inspired by the historical reputation of my city and use emeralds as they are especially significant to royal families from this period; thus, many of my high-end bridal or, as I like to call them, my ‘Timeless’ collections incorporate green beryls.”
Coming back from a long hiatus and re-emerging onto the scene through Couture Las Vegas is equal parts exciting and daunting. Fortunately for Sunita Nahata, she managed the task with colourful conviction. If she’s noticed a particular trend since launching her new collections, it is her customers’ desire for multi-coloured and multi-tonal jewels. After all, why have a single shade when you can demand a whole rainbow?
WORDS
Katerina Perez With more than 12 years’ experience in the jewellery sector, Katerina Perez’s expert knowledge spans everything from retail sales and management to content creation, including brand building, jewellery writing and styling. Born and raised in St Petersburg, Katerina’s favourite hobby as a child was playing with the treasures in her grandmother's jewellery box, inspiring a lifelong love of jewellery from a very early age. She spent five years in St Petersburg University of Culture and Arts studying not journalism but business studies and languages, and her writing skills have developed as her passion for her favourite subject – jewellery – has grown. This is why her writing comes straight from the heart rather than the pages of a book. Daughter of an entrepreneur mother, Katerina exchanged her retail management job for jewellery writing in 2013 and hasn’t looked back since.
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