DIVERSE DESIGN
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JENNY GUTTRIDGE TALKS TO YOUNG QATARI DESIGNER LEILA ABU ISSA ABOUT HER ENDEAVOURS WITH HER JEWELLERY BRAND LEILA ISSAM.
When did you first realise that you wanted to pursue your career as a jewellery designer?
The path was a bit long, I’m not going to lie, I always knew I wanted to design, but I didn’t know what, and it showed in my university path to be honest. So I started in fashion and I quickly realised that that wasn’t it so I moved into conceptual design in Paris, I completed three years and then I felt like I needed something more to come back to The Middle East as conceptual design doesn’t exist here yet, so if I wanted to come back I had to do something else. With this in mind I enrolled in interior design in Florence and then ended up working in a gold and diamond trading company so I was doing the business development part, and there I had all the materials. I had the gold and the diamonds to work with and we used to distribute, and then I fell in love. That’s where the story started. And I went back after two years of working with diamonds to complete a jewellery design course, I think all of the hands-on design experience that I’d had in jewellery helped! So, I did that and that’s how it started.
That’s great, there are so many different influences in there from fashion and then interiors, how does that translate into your work? Do you use the design that you learned through other areas for inspiration?
Absolutely, I am really glad my path was so diverse in design as it helped me build the brand as a whole from the branding to the interior of the location to really complete the brand. I feel it’s really important to diversify your mind.
Obviously, we’re in the Young Qatari Designers booth at DJWE. How does being Qatari influence your work? Do you draw on any traditional designs or motifs or methods?
I don’t use any traditional motifs, however I am very inspired by the women around me, it really inspires me, what they want to wear, how they want to feel in the jewellery and it helps me create the designs.
How do you feel when you wear your jewellery?
I honestly design things I want to wear, when I do that it’s a feeling I want to feel. Sometimes you want to feel very feminine and sometimes you want to feel very edgy so we have two different lines, somethings that are very dreamy and feminine and another line that’s a bit more practical.
You recently accessorised Leena Halawani for the Oscars on OSN #livetheoscars, which is amazing, congratulations! How does it feel when you see your pieces on the red carpet?
It’s a dream. We customised it and it’s also translating a feeling I wanted her to have on the red carpet so it is the more dreamy line that I was telling you about that she wore, so I wanted that to transpose whilst she was there.
What is the feeling you want women to have translated through your pieces?
I want to translate what being a woman is. I think we like to feel feminine but we also like to feel strong and I feel like I get to do that with jewellery because of the stones and the colours that we use is the feminine part but in the structure and design it is very powerful. So, I feel like I get to do that.
What are your favourite materials to work with when you’re creating a piece?
Is it too typical if I say diamonds!?
It is a girl’s best friend!
Yes! Definitely diamonds.
And so, in your current collections, if there was one stand out piece for you that was your favourite to either wear for yourself or that you had the most fun creating which one would it be?
The Forest Green collection, we keep adding to the collection it has been there for years, it’s by far for me the most beautiful piece on and I feel like it’s exactly what the brand is about, the contrast of that magical aura against the strong structure.
“Sometimes you want to feel very feminine and sometimes you want to feel very edgy so we have two different lines, somethings that are very dreamy and feminine and another line that’s a bit more practical.”
Whereabouts are your pieces made?
Depending on what piece I am designing I use different manufacturers. So, it’s between Jordan, Lebanon and Spain, there is a mechanism that I like to use that I only find in Spain. Actually there is also a piece I manufactured in India, I haven’t found anyone else that can create the gold layer that is so thin and holds the stone properly so I make the collection of vintage rings there.
Where are you wanting to see the brand go over the next five years? Where are you envisioning seeing yourself ?
So, this year we are opening two locations hopefully, so one in Qatar and one… somewhere else. Our plan is to be within department stores and not to have stand alone boutiques. We want to keep our jewellery accessible and we’d rather have our collection in different locations than to really be in one place. We’re going to be in Europe.
Who or what do you see embodies your brand or the image you want to portray?
It can be an actor or an athlete or someone from your family, it can be your mother, or I don’t know, your school teacher that you loved or hated. I feel it would suit Blake Lively and Victoria Beckham really well as they are both feminine yet bold, and I love that.