Annoushka Ducas, who is founder and creative director of her own-name jewellery brand, grew up in London and studied French Language and Civilization at the Sorbonne. From Paris, she moved to Hong Kong in the late Eighties and began to work with local artisans designing jewellery for herself. Three decades on, she continues this process with Annoushka.
“It is very personal — I design what I like to wear,” explains Annoushka. “Jewellery should work hard for you, if I can’t wear something in three different ways, I’m not interested! I’m also fascinated by the memory that jewellery holds and our emotional connection with it – I want my jewellery to make people smile, to tell a story and be enjoyed long after I have left the planet.”
While other jewellery brands seem to be about refining the same old ideas or chasing passing trends, Annoushka is always on a restless hunt for the new and unexpected. A compulsive traveller and collector, Annoushka trawls the world to discover extraordinary stones as well as innovative design techniques.
Maintaining a studio on-site at her boutique in Chelsea, London, means Annoushka can channel her energy into trying new things and pushing boundaries - that type of creativity is something you can always expect from Annoushka, again and again.
Design Creativity
It’s Annoushka’s restless hunt for the new and unexpected that defines the Annoushka aesthetic. It’s the reason an Annoushka piece will spin or open unexpectedly and why we have a collection that translates Nick Cave song lyrics into charms - It’s out of-the-box, “why not” design.
Her flair for interpreting colour, her ability to render texture, or lend movement and mood to jewellery is a result of her spending over 30 years working alongside master craftsmen plying age-old and innovative techniques at the jewellery bench.
Annoushka’s studio at her Chelsea, London boutique is brimming with inspirational found objects, candid photographs and artwork.
Travel, nature, foraging at antique markets, contemporary art, fashion, ancient jewellery, her daughters, Chloé and Marina, her loyal French bulldogs, are among the weird and wonderful sources prompting inspiring Annoushka designs.
My Life in Charms
Whatever name we give to these delicate pieces of jewellery; pendants, talismans, amulets, medallions, their allure is as strong today as it was for her ancient spellbound ancestors.
Annoushka can trace her charm anthology back to childhood, when her mother would gift her a small trinket or memento from her travels. These cherished gifts would develop into an eclectic collection of miniatures and inspire a design career spanning 30 years and two jewellery brands.
Annoushka has continued to unravel this fascination, designing close to 500 different charms, including limited edition designs to mark the Platinum Jubilee and Coronation of King Charles III.