Ara Vartanian: Why Slow Business Is Working For The Brazilian Jewelry Designer

Ara Vartanian is a gemstone man: "My father was a stone dealer and my earliest jewelry memory, is of crawling in his office and picking up small stones that had fallen on the floor," he laughs The stones are the starting point for every piece that comes out of his Sao Paolo atelier, bold jewelry that showcases sizeable gems in the most modern of ways beloved of editors from Edward Enninful to Rachel Garrahan, with a super cool celebrity following, including Kate Moss, Ronnie Wood and Swizz Beatz At the heart of it all, is a desire to "Capture the essence" of his raw materials: "The stones came hundreds of years before me, so I owe them the best I can" It's a respect for slow processes, for taking the time, that has influenced his approach to business and almost despite itself, his jewelry brand has grown significantly over the past five years.

Like the brutalist architecture of his stores and showrooms, softened with vintage collectibles, huge chunks of semi-precious stones and geodes; Vartanian's jewelry is refined, with a raw edge that goes against the grain of the identikit jewels ubiquitous in the fine jewelry establishment His careful engineering belies a real feel for the way women wear jewelry With existing stores in Sao Paolo and London, plus additional points of sale in Lebanon and the US, he is now preparing to make a more permanent move into China, after a recent pop-up in Shanghai with jewelry mega-group Chow Tai Fook's Jewelria international designer hub.

"There's more to it than designing jewelry at break-neck speed, we're taking time to find the right model". . Source