Creative thinking is giving these powerhouses in the local jewellery scene an edge in changing the game—in this series, we speak to four women who embody that pioneering spirit.
There is so much to learn about gemstones—their colours and shapes, how to identify them, whether they are lab-grown or fragile, and more, says Sabrina Ho of Flower Diamond. “Once you [interact] with customers, suppliers or all kinds of people and see [many jewellery] pieces, that’s where you will learn.”
The GIA-accredited gemologist has since put that training to use: some six years after Ho joined the jewellery brand founded by her mother, Belinda Chua, there are few aspects of the business at Flower Diamond that she is not involved in. From social media, to marketing, and even the design of the retail space and merchandise displays, she has played a role in all of them. On Flower Diamond’s Instagram page, Ho curates an elegant selection of jewellery with a younger, aesthetics-minded audience in view. She also contributes to jewellery design by recommending those that she feels would resonate better with consumers and by sharing her inspirations with the team.
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To complement Flower Diamond’s designs and in response to demand from clients, the brand has partnerships to carry jewellery from a number of brands in Spain, Italy and Greece that are not otherwise available in Singapore. “There are some things that we cannot beat design-wise [or based on] their workmanship,” Ho says. “These designs are very different from [brand to brand], but they have different target audiences.”
Even with Flower Diamond’s international clientele and their varied tastes, the brand carries something for everyone. “There are some [pieces] that no one buys for maybe 10 years, and then just one person who really likes them [will come in and snap them up],” she adds. “My mum always says that every piece of jewellery has its owner.”
PHOTOGRAPHY JAYA KHIDIR
ART DIRECTION GREGORY WOO
HAIR & MAKEUP SHA SHAMSI, USING CHANEL BEAUTY AND KEUNE
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT IVAN ISKANDAR PADRON YASSIN
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