To celebrate the festive season of gift-giving, Beirut accessories brand Vanina has teamed up with s*uce to give customers the chance to create personalised jewellery.
Bar a Bijoux was launched last week at the s*uce boutique in The Dubai Mall. Tatiana Fayad and Joanne Hayek, the designers behind the brand, are childhood friends who made their debut with a jewellery line in 2007 at the age of 19.
Today, their pieces are on sale across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. Hayek tells us about their unique Bar a Bijoux concept.
How did the idea for a jewellery bar offering personalised accessories come about?
Even before we started the brand, Tatiana and I were always customising our own jewellery. There’s an intimate relationship and an emotional attachment a woman has with her jewellery, so we’ve made charms that are really personal and meaningful, giving the opportunity for customers to really assemble pieces to their own tastes. The line came about slowly, and we launched our first Bar a Bijoux in Beirut this summer.
How are the charms produced and what are they made of?
We design them all ourselves. We sketch them first, then draw them in 3-D, and then 3-D-print them. After that we create moulds out of them, and then they are handmade from there out of gold-plated brass. All crystals are Swarovski, and for this collection we mix in a lot of other materials too, such as pearls, tassels, ceramic flowers and ribbons.
What makes s*uce an ideal home for your Bar a Bijoux?
S*uce has been a partner to the brand for a few years and has always been supportive of our creations. We feel that in terms of identity, we share the same kind of vision and we couldn’t see our Bar a Bijoux in a better place than here. We feel that it really suits the shop, and they help us take it to the next level.
Have you found that most customers make personalised gifts or pieces for themselves?
I think it’s really both. A lot of times they come wanting to make a gift for someone and then they end up making a gift as well as something for themselves.
What are your most popular customisations?
From all of the pieces customers have assembled so far, we haven’t yet seen two of the same customisations. Each one would write something different – like a word that means a lot to them, or just initials. The ones I find most funny are the hoop earrings, because you can put a different word on each, like “never” and “mind”. I like when they have a funny twist.
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