Long earlier than the invention of oil, the Arab world’s lifeblood was the jewelry commerce.
In Egypt, the native trade was famend for its masterful gold smithing. In Lebanon, buying and selling gold shaped a spine of the financial system, anchored by Beirut’s bustling souks and port. Across the Arabian Peninsula, right this moment’s GCC, which incorporates Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, pearl diving and the sale of pure pearls sustained total communities.
For many years, Arab jewelry circulated largely inside closed cultural and business loops, tied to bridal trousseaux, household heirlooms and regional gold markets. Today, nevertheless, that ecosystem has opened decisively outward.
Over the previous 20 years, and significantly within the years following the pandemic, a mixture of trailblazers and a brand new technology of designers, many educated overseas but deeply rooted in regional craft traditions, have reframed Middle Eastern jewelry for a worldwide viewers. Alongside them, legacy homes are modernising their design language, retail methods and model positioning, tapping into rising demand for culturally particular luxurious and craftsmanship-led storytelling.
“We have a history of being adventurous, of trading, of having craftsmanship, of contributing to the intellectual community,” stated Fred Mouawad, fourth-generation co-guardian of Lebanese heritage home Mouawad, based in Beirut in 1908. “When you fast forward, craftsmanship and having a global mindset – it’s very much in our DNA.”
That depth of historical past now offers Arab jewelry a degree of distinction in an more and more saturated luxurious market. According to BoF and McKinsey’s The State of Fashion 2026 report, jewelry stays one of many few vivid spots in an in any other case sluggish sector, buoyed by customers’ want for lasting worth and private resonance. Globally, the class is forecast to develop 4.1 p.c yearly per unit over the subsequent three years – 4 occasions the speed of clothes.
“Jewellery promotes self-expression and emotional connection in a way that other luxury categories don’t right now,” stated Eric Ford, model director at Couture, probably the most influential high quality jewelry commerce exhibits within the US. “That’s why we’re seeing independent designers, especially those with a strong cultural point of view, resonate globally.”
For Arab designers and heritage homes alike, that shift has been auspicious.
“Many people love the story of jewellery in the Arab world,” stated Nader Jaber, a Paris-based jewelry marketing consultant and gemologist specialising within the Middle East. “Designers and heritage houses that have chosen to innovate and go international know how to tell these stories with beauty and complexity. That draws in clientele who care about cultural heritage and craftsmanship, and how the story informs the design.”
From Merchants and Artisans to Regional Juggernauts
For centuries, the Middle East sat on the centre of world jewelry commerce routes. In the early twentieth century, pearls had been among the many most dear commodities on this planet, with the Gulf appearing as the first market.
That pearl financial system gave rise to highly effective service provider households whose affect nonetheless shapes the area’s jewelry panorama right this moment. Families reminiscent of Bahrain’s Al Zain and Mattar dynasties, and Qatar’s Al Fardan household — dwelling to the world’s largest pure pearl assortment — constructed their reputations as pearl merchants. Over time, many developed into regional jewelry juggernauts, with teams like Al Fardan increasing into vogue, actual property and different industries whereas sustaining deep roots in jewelry craftsmanship.
Their early worldwide prominence coincided with a second when Islamic geometry and symmetry started influencing Western jewellers, “a two-way conversation that accelerated with Art Deco,” stated Rachel Garrahan, London-based jewelry knowledgeable and co-curator of the V&A’s Cartier exhibition. “Jacques Cartier even travelled to the Gulf in 1911 to source pearls.”
This change additionally laid the groundwork for Arab heritage homes that might later obtain regional, and generally international, distinction.
Lebanese model Mouawad stays among the many most recognisable internationally – identified for top jewelry creations, record-breaking diamonds and collaborations together with the Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra and Miss Universe tiaras. Today, the fourth technology of the household is steering a strategic evolution.
“We’re evolving from being known only for high jewellery masterpieces to becoming more accessible through fine jewellery,” stated Mouawad, whose firm now has flagships in London, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh, Muscat and Bangkok, with additional enlargement deliberate throughout Asia.
In the Gulf, comparable transitions are underway. UAE-based Al Fardan Jewellery (separate from the Qatari firm) additionally traces its lineage to the pearl commerce. Founder of his eponymous label, Adi Al Fardan attracts immediately from that historical past whereas repositioning his model for a extra international viewers.
“My grandfather was known across the Gulf as ‘the pearl doctor,’” stated Al Fardan. “Pearls were a symbol of identity and status, and that respect for craftsmanship still shapes how I approach jewellery today.”
While Al Fardan now focuses on pure diamonds and uncommon gems for top jewelry items, geometry and symbolism stay central to the model’s design language.
While heritage companies have modified with the occasions, shopper tastes throughout the area have additionally developed. Jewellery is now not reserved solely for weddings or investment-grade stones. And whereas Western luxurious jewelry from manufacturers like Cartier, Tiffany and Co., Bvlgari and Chaumet amongst others, proceed to be widespread amongst Arab consumers, there’s a larger pull in the direction of regional designers as people look to distinguish themselves.
“Jewellery in the Arab world is becoming less about status and more about individuality,” stated Katerina Perez, a jewelry journalist who steadily covers the area. “Women are stacking, layering and mixing pieces. This has opened the door for designers, not just jewellers, to define new aesthetics rooted in heritage but relevant today.”
The Trailblazers and the New Wave of Contemporary Arab Designers
In this vein, if heritage homes laid the foundations, it was a gaggle of impartial designers who redefined how Arab jewelry may look, and the place it may journey.
Designers reminiscent of Azza Fahmy in Egypt, Selim Mouzannar and Nada Ghazal in Lebanon, and Nadine Kanso within the UAE started reinterpreting regional motifs, introducing colored gems and up to date silhouettes at a time when Arab id itself was usually politicised or marginalised.
Azza Fahmy is extensively thought to be a turning level. Founded in Cairo in 1969, her eponymous model bridged conventional Egyptian craftsmanship with up to date design many years earlier than “heritage storytelling” turned a luxurious trade shorthand. Her gold-and-silver items, inscribed with poetry, symbolism and calligraphy, challenged Western assumptions about Middle Eastern jewelry as purely decorative.
“Azza Fahmy was one of the first to insist that Arab jewellery could be intellectual, political and wearable,” stated Katia Jundi, a Doha-based jewelry journalist and creator. “She opened doors for an entire generation.”
“She broke every boundary,” stated Fahmy’s daughter and CEO Fatma Ghaly, who joined the corporate 20 years in the past and led its worldwide enlargement, from collaborations with Balmain to flagships in Cairo to London and Saudi Arabia within the final 5 years. “We always had an exceptional product, but we needed structure and a deliberate global vision.” Under Ghaly and her sister Amina, who’s the label’s artistic head, the corporate has additionally performed a wider position in incubating new regional expertise by means of its jewelry design college.
In Lebanon, Selim Mouzannar adopted a parallel path. Trained at Paris’ Institut National de Gemmologie, he returned to Beirut within the Nineteen Nineties to ascertain his atelier, maintaining manufacturing native whereas constructing a world enterprise as Lebanon’s political and financial scenario deteriorated.
His daring use of colored gems, fused with Byzantine and Ottoman references , has earned international recognition, with items worn by Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Gwyneth Paltrow.
“For me, it’s very important to have a personal connection with the people wearing your jewellery,” stated Mouzannar, whose model is stocked by impartial retailers throughout Europe, the US and the Middle East, and can quickly open a everlasting house at London’s Liberty.
Operating in the identical atmosphere however with out formal jewelry coaching, Nada Ghazal constructed a model outlined by femininity and lightness. Since founding her label within the early 2000s, she has centered on playfulness as a lot as craft.
“Jewellery should tell a story, but it should also feel joyful,” Ghazal stated. “I never wanted my work to feel heavy, emotionally or physically.”
After her Beirut flagship was destroyed within the 2020 port explosion, Ghazal opened her first worldwide flagship in London this yr, following long-standing retail partnerships with Harrods and Liberty within the metropolis, Greenwich St Jewelers in New York, and distinguished pop ups at Bergdorf Goodman. But past its personal brick-and-mortar presence, the model has additionally developed a large international attain by means of cities within the US and Europe, from Zurich, Bucharest and Athens to Austin, Portland and Nantucket – a testomony to its common attraction.
In Dubai, Nadine Kanso based Bil Arabi, that means “Speak Arabic,” in 2006, remodeling Arabic calligraphy into daring, graphic high quality jewelry at a second when Arab tradition was usually sidelined globally.
“When I started, Arabic script wasn’t seen as fashionable or universal,” stated Kanso. “I wanted to reclaim that language visually, not nostalgically, but boldly.” Today, she added, purchasers put on the items no matter whether or not they converse Arabic, drawn by emotion and design quite than language itself.
“These designers reframed Arab jewellery as contemporary, not traditional,” stated Manuel Arnaut, editorial director of Vogue Arabia. “They weren’t making jewellery about heritage. They were making jewellery from heritage.”
That reframing paved the best way for manufacturers like L’Atelier Nawbar, the place sisters Tania and Dima Nawbar constructed upon their household’s Beirut-based jewelry enterprise relationship again to the Nineteen Fifties. Drawing from archival references, Art Deco influences and enamel work, the model balances legacy with experimentation.
“We grew up surrounded by jewellery,” stated Tania Nawbar. “But our approach was about reinterpreting that history. We wanted pieces that felt joyful, collectible and modern.”
For all these manufacturers after regional reputation, worldwide publicity quickly adopted – aided by international retailers, red-carpet placements and jewelry festivals reminiscent of Couture in Las Vegas, a key gateway to the US market.
“Couture is where designers with a unique point of view can build a global audience,” stated Gannon Brousseau, the commerce present’s govt vice chairman. “We’re seeing more designers from the Middle East because they bring something genuinely different, informed by lived experience rather than trends.”
Changing With the Times: The Next Generation
If earlier waves of Arab jewelry designers went international over time, the newest technology is international by default – with social media radically levelling the taking part in area.
“Social media has democratised jewellery,” stated Rachel Garrahan. “Over the last 10 to 15 years, it’s given independent designers visibility everywhere. You find brands on Instagram now, wherever they are in the world, and you can’t underestimate how transformative that’s been.”
That shift is obvious at Couture, which more and more discovers designers on-line. “We’re always looking for a unique point of view,” stated Brousseau. “Often that comes from designers whose heritage informs their work, and in many cases, we’ve discovered them on Instagram.”
The commerce present’s model director Ford added that jewelry’s resilience amid the posh slowdown has intensified curiosity. “There’s been a clear uptick in the $5,000 to $20,000 fine jewellery range,” he stated. “Consumers see it as emotional, but also investment-driven.”
Lebanese designer Ralph Masri represents this new cohort. Trained at Central Saint Martins in London, Masri attracts on Beirut’s architectural language to create sculptural items designed for on a regular basis put on, with Instagram and WhatsApp gross sales proving key for worldwide enterprise, and unique e-retail companion 1stdibs essential for drawing in US clientele.
“I realised jewellery could combine artistry and sustainability as a business,” Masri stated. “It allowed me to be design-first, which was quite new at the time, but honour where I come from while creating something globally wearable.”
Beyond Masri, social media has helped catalyse a brand new technology of experimental Arab designers – notably ladies – reshaping jewelry by means of type, materials and idea.
“Women have a prominent position in the industry today thanks to their creativity,” stated jewelry journalist Katerina Perez.
In Egypt, Jude Benhalim mixes colored resin with gold and silver. “I didn’t want to work within fixed definitions of value,” she stated. “By mixing materials, I’m asking people to rethink what makes jewellery precious.” Her model has prompted a lot buzz for its daring but accessible designs, and has grown a noteworthy worldwide presence past the Middle East for the reason that pandemic, held by retailers in Paris, Spain, Greece, Nigeria and South Africa, in addition to a variety of e-retailers.
Lebanese-French designer Joelle Kharrat equally blends wooden, pearl and opals with valuable metals and diamonds in her viral and hero Toteme items – foregrounding distinction, tactility and Lebanese craftsmanship. “I’m interested in tension, between materials, between softness and structure,” she stated. “That dialogue feels reflective of the diversity in our region today.”
A veteran within the sector, Kharrat’s new label, established in 2022, is now synonymous with the daring, playful and experimental jewelry popping out the area for the reason that pandemic, that has discovered broad worldwide buyer base, retailing in France, Brazil, a number of cities within the US and on Net-a-porter globally solely three years in.
In Kuwait, Shouq Al-Fulaij based Ascher with a worldwide mindset from the outset. “We’re part of a generation that carries its heritage proudly, but without limitation,” she stated. “Our work isn’t about fitting into a category.” Today, her edgy and simply recognisable black gold and baguette diamond octagonal rings and ear items and nautical impressed choices have garnered a lot worldwide consideration, retailing within the US at Saks Fifth Avenue and worn by the likes of Rihanna and Emily Blunt.
Elsewhere, UAE-based Noora Shawqi has constructed a quieter however strategic model centered on travel-inspired, stackable jewelry designed for every day put on. “Heritage doesn’t have to be literal,” she stated. “It can live in craftsmanship, intention and storytelling.”
Across these manufacturers, the emphasis is much less on overt symbolism and extra on authenticity, a shift aligning with broader luxurious tendencies.
“Storytelling matters more than ever,” stated Couture’s Ford. “Consumers want connection, and jewellery is uniquely positioned to offer that emotional bond.”
As luxurious customers more and more prioritise provenance over logos, in what seems like long-overdue recognition, right this moment Arab jewelry designers, rooted in centuries of commerce, adaptation and artistry, are now not ready for the worldwide shopper to come back to them, however proactively shaping the way forward for the sector.