RAINBOWS, ROSES AND PEARLS

Nina’s Jewellery offers some of the most unique pieces on the market, living up to its reputation as the coloured diamond specialist. We chat to Shivangi Modi, General Manager of Product and Finance, about the Rainbow Collection, rose cut diamonds and South Sea Pearls, and what the future looks like for Nina’s.

Nina’s launched the Rainbow Collection early in 2022. What has the reception been like so far? It’s been one of our most successful collections. One person every three days buys a piece from the Rainbow Collection. The most popular pieces are ones with the full colour spectrum of rainbow diamonds. We make sure that all the coloured diamonds we use have the same vividness and colour intensity as the Argyle pink diamonds.

That’s the secret of designing this collection: if you put pink in between yellow and green it pops even more. Now, we’ve expanded the collection from rings into pendants and earrings as well. We’ve also got pieces at all price points, to make it more accessible.

Rose cut diamonds are a vintage style that is coming back into fashion. Can you tell us about your rose cut diamond collection?

Rose cuts are very unique to the Australian market. They have been with us for 500 years, but gained popularity in the last few years (thanks partly to Jennifer Aniston’s engagement ring!).

The name comes from the triangular facets which look like the petals unfolding in a rose. Compared to a brilliant cut diamond, which has 57-58 facets, a rose cut diamond has between 3 and 24 facets. It has a flat bottom, rather than a peak, which allows it to sit closer to your finger.

The best part is that, because of the flat bottom, they look larger on your hand than a brilliant cut diamond. The light also passes through it more subtly: it’s calm and has a warmth to it.

Another thing that’s really unique about rose cut diamonds is the different geometric shapes you can source, like round, cushion, hexagon and trapezium cuts.

Your South Sea Pearl collection is sourced from the waters off Broome and the South Seas. What should people look for when buying pearls?

If you’re buying pearl earrings, you need to first make sure that the earrings are sitting well on your earlobe. And, of course, you also have to look at the quality and lustre of the pearl.

With our South Sea Pearl collection, customers were looking for something fresh, modern and valuable. We wanted to make the collection really wearable, so you can complete your entire look with just one piece of jewellery. It’s the perfect finishing touch for a professional woman looking for understated elegance.

It has certainly been an exciting time for Nina’s. What does the year ahead look like?

This year has been so exciting for us, and we’ve come up with so many different concepts and styles. We are looking at creating more ranges tailored to the online market, because it has doubled from last year. We are very popular in Western Australia, while Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are our other three main markets. But because of our online presence, we have gone international too.

We take a lot of inspiration from nature, such as the texture and shape of basalt rocks in our South Sea Pearl collection. We’re also developing a range based on quandong seeds, which are native to Western Australia, which will be coming out for Christmas.

We are also designing more of our Crown Jewels collection, which are one-off, once-in-a-lifetime pieces. It includes pieces ranging up to $200,000, and they are designed to be exciting, aspirational and like nothing you’ve ever seen before.