Young Saudi jewelry designer Lillian Ismail built a label that represents a fantastic traditional jewelry collection, which comprises richly-textured pieces, mostly handcrafted. Her unique aesthetic collection combines precious diamonds with heavy gold. Here’s a peek inside her world of design, creation, and an art that overlaps jewelry fashion:
How did you get started in the world of jewelry design?
I started my career in jewelry design after years of passion toward the fields of fashion, art and design. Lillian Ismail as a jewelry brand started in my senior year in high school when I decided to produce a jewelry collection as my graduation project to fulfill the American diploma requirements. However, it was really very serendipitous.
What lead you to work with jewelry at such a young age?
When I introduced my proposal to the department in high school, I had two main reasons behind my decision. Firstly, since I was more inclined toward the fashion field than jewelry, I decided to work in a field that lacks the female’s creativity in our society. Secondly, I wanted to encourage the young ladies to bring the history of jewelry back to society using their creative ideas and passion, and eventually expand internationally. I never expected to be handling a very high budget business at such a young age, but the success of my first collection Banajir encouraged me to proceed and reminded me that age is never an obstacle. It’s always a pleasure to be a source of inspiration to a lot of girls in the same age range.
From where did you draw inspiration to start your own label?
My inspiration was first based on traditional Saudi jewelry that I transformed into modern pieces from different areas in the country such as Hijaz and Najd. As I produced more pieces and collections, my inspirations are shifting between specific Saudi jewelry and the old Arab culture in general.
What is your favorite part about jewelry design?
To me, being a designer is the same as being an artist. It is a passion and I believe this category is a perfect translation and definition to the word beauty. The eye naturally finds pleasure in what is beautiful, and that’s what makes jewelry design so special. Jewelry pieces are simply beautiful!
Tell us more about your design style and where do your ideas evolve from?
As I mentioned before, my pieces are all inspired from our valuable culture. The first collection was specifically named after the well-known word ‘Bunjarah’ (meaning a bangle). From there, I decided to name the first collection Banajir. Similarly, the very recent collection, Jadela, inspired from the hair braids ‘Jadeelah’, is also well-known for its unique source of inspiration. Women in our society used to practice hair braiding on a daily basis and considered it beautiful. It protects a very valuable part of the woman, her hair, which is represented through expensive, precious materials such as gold and diamonds.
What materials and techniques do you favor?
Since I am currently studying jewelry design and working on jewelry production, I personally admire handmade jewelry pieces. As a bench jeweler, giving attention to details makes handcrafted jewelry more valuable. However, speaking about the materials, we first started working with silver and precious stones, later I made my designs into diamond and gold. I am very pleased to be working with diamond and gold in Jadela.
What distinguishes you from other jewelry designers in the country?
First, I would like to say that I’m very pleased that Saudi designers are becoming more interested in jewelry and are running their own businesses. Each and every designer of both genders in the country is unique because he or she brought art and design to society. Art and design in general is a very classy category that educates society, and opens visions and minds. As for me, the quality of my pieces is proudly outstanding because they are produced in AlFarsi Jewelry studios owned by my mentor Sheikh Jamil Farsi, the dean of jewelers in Jeddah. I guess my age is an important factor as well.
Who do you visualize wearing your work? Do you think about this when you work on designs?
Thinking about the audience and targeting my buyers is definitely an emphasized factor when I design and brainstorm. I try to target all ages and satisfy different tastes by designing very simple yet attractive pieces.
What do you find the most challenging aspect of your work as a jeweler in the Kingdom and owning a brand of your own?
The very first challenging aspect and most difficult one to overcome is living in New York while my work is based in Jeddah. The time difference is definitely a big part of it as it makes it difficult for me to set meetings and follow up with the production due to studio hours.
Another obstacle is the unprofessional level of the working environment we all have to deal with even when working with ‘professional’ companies. It is honestly an unpleasant factor that brings you down sometimes and decreases your enthusiasm as an entrepreneur.
What should we expect from your future collections, are there any new pieces you are working on?
My team and I are willing to expand Jadela within the country and in the Middle East. I will be focusing on my last two years of college, which will be very tough and challenging as I get closer to graduation. We hope to produce a new collection in 2016. Finally, we have a small surprise for our customers — we are happy to bring back our coin pieces in the near future, the pieces that were out of stock for a while now.
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