Fine jewellery is evolving, as an emerging generation of designers bring fresh narratives to the craft. By combining material experimentation with symbolic storytelling , they have expanded what jewellery represents and who engages with it. Anabela Chan is among the three designers who are reshaping the industry’s future.
London-based Chan has built a universe where material science meets fantasy, and luxury is reimagined through innovation, environmental consciousness, and ethics. Born in Hong Kong into a celebrated film family and raised in Paris before studying in London, she grew up immersed in visual storytelling.
“I was fortunate to be exposed to many beautiful things, from photography, film stills and props to jewellery and exotic destinations,” she recalls. “It allowed me to develop a critical eye for beauty and detail.”
Before founding her jewellery brand in 2013, the trained architect worked under Sir Richard Rogers and later joined Alexander McQueen in print and embroidery design. These experiences sharpened both her technical eye and her appetite for emotional spectacle, but jewellery offered something architecture and fashion could not.
“I was always designing and drawing on paper or digitally, and I really missed a sense of tangible craftsmanship, making things with my hands,” she says. “Jewellery is the ultimate treasure, a piece of art handcrafted with wondrous materials that’s seasonless, timeless, ageless and can carry a world of memories and emotions.”
From the very beginning, Chan set out to redefine what fine jewellery could be. She was the world’s first independent designer to incorporate lab-grown gemstones and recycled metals into a high-end, red carpet-worthy label.
“We represent the future, a brand where science innovation blends with artistic creations, where true sustainability is combined with ethical practices, and where nature is bettered rather than depleted,” she asserts. “It has been my mission since day one to offer a different perspective without the conflict, humanitarian and environmental issues, and untraceable provenance associated with mining.”
Chan’s acclaimed 2020 Blooms! collection transformed recycled soda-can aluminium into fine jewellery. Now, her newest breakthrough, Fruit Gems, pushes the boundaries even further. Developed over three years, these vibrant gemstones are synthesised from pigments extracted from discarded fruits and vegetables, and are an industry first.
“I saw the vast quantities of perfectly good fresh produce just beyond their sell-by dates during the pandemic,” she explains. This led to her crafting stones from beetroot, dragon fruit, spinach, blue spirulina, and more, which she bonded with bio-resins derived from corn, soy, agave and avocado seeds. All are cut, faceted and polished like natural gems. “Each gemstone is a celebration of colour and nature—alive with the essence of the earth,” she notes.
The Chlorophyll and Mermaid’s Tale collections are equally forward-looking, using sustainably cultivated regenerative Tahitian pearls and ocean waste metals as modern wonders. In addition to this, her Regenerative-Gemstones invention includes a new amber made from autumn leaves and twigs, as well as rose quartz, amethyst, malachite, and lapis lazuli created from recycled lapidary scraps.
Her work, worn by Beyoncé, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Zoe Kravitz, is driven by her belief in a greener future: “I want people to feel the joy, beauty and empowerment jewellery brings, to see waste turned into wonder, to question luxury, and to be surprised by the alchemy of science and art.”
