The 2017 Paris Biennale artwork honest was the primary time the eponymous jeweller Alisa Moussaieff noticed the work of Anna Hu, a fellow exhibitor virtually 5 a long time her junior. It was an occasion that Moussaieff will always remember.
“Not only did Anna have a nice show, she managed to attract the press,” Moussaieff remembers. “There was a Chinese delegation that we tried to get — she got them, and we didn’t. I very much remember that.”
The following yr, Moussaieff, who is predicated in London, invited Hu to her Bond Street boutique for a gathering. Hu remembers feeling intimidated, regardless of being the Taiwan-born daughter of a gem seller and rising up surrounded by beautiful stones, then chopping her enamel at Christie’s, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Harry Winston earlier than beginning her personal model in New York, aged 30.
Moussaieff’s fame preceded her, nevertheless. The home is synonymous within the trade with a listing of exceptionally giant, jaw-dropping stones, and is rooted in an illustrious gem-trading historical past that dates again to the twelfth century Mongolian ruler Genghis Khan — who seemingly was a shopper.
But the admiration was mutual. Moussaieff instantly requested what they may do collectively. “This was literally before I sat down,” remembers Hu, who lately moved to Monaco and divides her time between there and the US. “She got right to the point about a co-operation concept.”
The outcomes, in 2021, have been eight co-created jewels, which spotlight the symbiosis — each artistic and business — between these two impartial jewellers.
Headlining the items is what Moussaieff calls the “star piece — Anna’s star idea”: a powerful titanium Metamorphosis bracelet set with a harmonious smorgasbord of colored stones — brown, yellow-brown, and yellow-orange diamonds; mandarin, orange, and demantoid garnets, Paraiba tourmalines and sapphires, amongst them. The piece takes inspiration from Mozart’s 12 Variations on “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” (music is a recurring theme for Hu, a cellist). The butterfly motif bracelet is topped with Moussaieff’s distinctive 35.4ct marquise brown diamond, alongside a pair of old-cut, trapezoid diamonds, every greater than 5 carats, set on the butterfly’s wing. Hu first noticed the 2 stones set in a hoop and requested Moussaieff in the event that they may very well be damaged up and remounted into her design.
Moussaieff didn’t hesitate. “Nobody else can do that because everybody else has a board of directors above them,” she says, including that she discovered the thought “financially quite clever”, too. “The ring would have sold for ‘X’ amount and now, in this combination, the whole piece will be sold for more. So it’s not a sacrifice.”
Another standout piece is the architectural Sky Tower necklace for which Hu took inspiration from Tower Verre, a 320m-tall skyscraper adjoining to New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. Crafted via geometric slices of titanium and that includes an intricate, basic Chinese motif on the underside, the design speaks to Anna’s signature merging of east and west touchpoints. Meanwhile, a whopping 102.18ct brown-yellow diamond centre stone is Moussaieff’s hallmark. Had they been designing independently, says Moussaieff, Hu would have used a semi-precious centre stone, whereas Moussaieff’s jewel would have been notably heavier.
“Traditionally, a 100-carat stone would demand an important number of stones around it — and would get it,” says Moussaieff. “But, here, Anna used small diamonds and titanium.”
Design collaborations are commonplace between abilities in style and even watches, however uncommon between jewellers. Although Hu factors to a “duet chemistry” with Moussaieff — fuelled by a mutual appreciation of their particular person, family-run companies — the latter’s prized gem stock is essential to this union.
“This partnership reflects the coming together of two high-end players with a focus on large, highly prized gemstones, targeting wealthy buyers,” says Tobias Kormind, managing director of the net jeweller 77 Diamonds. Important stones, he provides, are more and more seen as a retailer of wealth in tumultuous occasions, as “the stock markets have gyrated massively: through the financial crisis in 2008, during Covid, and now with the war in Ukraine and all the macroeconomic issues this has caused”. High high quality gem stones historically carry out nicely in an inflationary atmosphere, he notes, with costs for a number of the highest high quality diamonds rising by greater than a 3rd prior to now yr, and virtually 60 per cent in 5 years.
The eight co-created items are priced upwards of seven figures every and just some have bought. More are being added, says Moussaieff, who doesn’t appear overly involved about gross sales for the time being — and hints at working with different designers sooner or later.
With Hong Kong scrapping its quarantine guidelines final month, and extra rich shoppers beginning to journey once more, she is optimistic about unconventional, design-led jewels — just like the Sky Tower — discovering a purchaser. Plus, she provides: “If it doesn’t sell after one year, I take out the diamond and put it in one of our traditional mountings. But I [would] like to have this sold because I believe in [Anna’s] mounting.”
Perhaps Moussaieff sees one thing of her youthful self in Hu — her ardour and initiative as each a artistic and enterprise proprietor. “She’s quick, she’s vivacious, and a pleasure to work with,” says Moussaieff, who admires Hu’s current travels to the US to satisfy Chinese shoppers, who more and more reside overseas. “She does things before we even think about them. That is really a great advantage.”
Meanwhile, the 90-something Moussaieff is extra like a mentor to Hu, who says the 2 communicate almost each day. Topics vary from stone color tendencies, to the gem market — resembling this week’s momentous Sotheby’s sale of the 11.15ct Williamson Pink Star, one of many world’s pinkest and purest diamonds to come back to market — and to chatting about their kids.
“For me, it’s really to learn from someone who is so clever, so brilliant, so sharp and cut-throat,” says Hu. “I take that as the most priceless lesson. I really cherish every single second that she spends time with me because I know it’s historical. This won’t be repeated.”
