Annoushka Ducas – Back to bling

Annoushka Ducas does not like waiting around.  When we meet on a Monday afternoon at the top floor of Harvey Nichols, she’s feeling a little harassed after sitting in traffic for 30 minutes.  And when she leaves an hour later, the lift is so slow that she gives me a smile and a wave, and then heads straight for the stairs.

This sense of urgency permeates her life.  Personally, she lives every day to the max, having learnt early on how transient life is after her mother died when she was 24.  Professionally, it’s equally evident.

Ducas started Links of London in 1991 and turned it into one of the world’s leading fine jewellery brands before selling up 15 years later for a reported £50m.

“I thought I was done with jewellery. I never suspected I would be sitting at home, putting my feet up, but I didn’t think I’d go back into jewellery”

“For me, the creativity and excitement had gone,” she explains.  “When you have a creative mind and you have an idea, you want to do it very quickly.  It became difficult to achieve this in a big company.  I’d have an idea for a design and somebody would say ‘Well, that’s fine but we’re not going to be able to do it for a year’, all because of the machinations of the business.”

After selling Links, she and her husband, John Ayton, a former corporate lawyer and her long-time business partner, had few plans other than to relax and spend time with their four children.  But after two years travelling the world, she was shocked to discover a hunger for jewellery design once again.

“I thought I was done with it,” she hoots.  “I never suspected we would be sitting at home, putting our feet up because I’m not sure that’s in my nature.  But did I think I’d go back into the world of jewellery?  No, no, no.”

Now, 18 months on, the results can be found in the hippest sections of Selfridges, Liberty, Harrods, House of Fraser and Harvey Nichols stores around the country.  Ducas launched ‘Annoushka’ in mid-October and it is fast becoming one of the UK’s most exciting new jewellery brands.

“I thought I was done with jewellery. I never suspected I would be sitting at home, putting my feet up, but I didn’t think I’d go back into jewellery”

Some elements are similar to Links – both businesses were launched during recessions and some of her original team are still with her.  But mostly it’s entirely different.  “The plan is to keep it small,” she smiles.  “It means that when I have an idea, the sooner I can do it and get it into the stores, the more rewarding and fulfilling it is. 

“Even if you’re confident and sophisticated, jewellery stores can be a bit intimidating. You kind of feel you need a man on your arm”

“Also, I think the world has changed.  People don’t want to see the same piece of jewellery on everybody.  But unless you’re very lucky, people can’t afford to buy the very high jeweller’s one-off pieces.  So we do them at a sensible level and price.”

Ducas is also determined to make the buying experience less scary.  “Even if you’re confident and sophisticated, the security guards and hushed tones in stores can be a bit intimidating.  You kind of feel you need a man on your arm.  Well, it’s not like that here.  Over 95 per cent of our clients are women and the ones that aren’t have probably been sent in by them!”

Ducas’s main goal, however, is to expand women’s jewellery wardrobes, showing how they can experiment and mix and match to create very different looks.  She is her own best advertisement here.  On her fingers, Ducas wears a selection of Annoushka rings stacked one on top of another which creates a trendy, bold but expensive look.  Worn solo, the rings say something completely different - more delicate, subtle and elegant. 

It’s the same with her necklaces.  Individually, each one is exquisitely crafted and unmistakably high quality.  Worn together, they’re more bohemian and chi chi.  “I design for myself,” she laughs by way of explanation.  And it’s true that she has always followed her instincts when it comes to business. 

Ducas studied at the Sorbonne in Paris in the 1980s but has no formal training as a jeweller.  She first created jewellery in Hong Kong while travelling the world.  But it was only when she returned to the UK at age 23, and designed a fish-shaped cufflink for her mother’s fish supply business, that the idea to set up her own store struck.

These days, she draws on her heritage for inspiration.  Her mother’s family, the Provatoroffs, fled Moscow after the Russian revolution and this influence is felt in the colour and opulence of each of Ducas’s designs.

“I’m also a bit of a magpie,” she continues.  “I collect funny things like stones and leaves, and I’ve also been left some extraordinarily eclectic things, whether it’s furniture, pictures, throws, Russian boxes, cufflinks or jewellery.  I think everything has a design link, even if it’s subconscious.”

Having no formal training has had both advantages and disadvantages.  Ducas has never learnt to draw, so describes her ideas to someone who then carves them out of wax.  “That’s been very frustrating on one hand but ultimately more beneficial on the other.  I am quite instinctive and have no design barriers.  I’ve had a lot of people in my career say ‘No, we can’t do that’, only to find a way around it.”

She’s helping to develop that instinctive nature amongst today’s jewellery design students, working with Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design.  Each year, she supports between four and six designers, helping them develop a collection and then showcasing and selling the pieces in her shops.  “Nurturing new talent is part of our philosophy.  It works for the designer, for us and for the customer because they’re always looking to discover someone new.”

These days, she’s also careful to nurture her family and children who are all aged between eight and 16.  “When I sold Links, spending time with my children was very much a driving force behind it.  I promised them jewellery wouldn’t take over their lives again.  So it’s a balancing act.  Luckily what I do can be done from anywhere.  It can be done from the beach, but very often,” she laughs, “it’s from the side of the football field.”

For more information, visit www.annoushka-jewellery.com.  The new Annoushka store is now open at 41 Cadogan Gardens, London, SW3. Tel: 020 7801 5828.