Ana Khouri Brings Her Artist’s Eye to a New Collection of High Jewelry

Why not, indeed? Why not create an articulated collar of rock crystal, with a central 5.54 carat pink diamond surrounded by plenty of  other diamonds? And if pink is not your color, Khouri also has a version of this design with a yellow diamond taking center stage.  Though substantial in the hand, the piece is almost weightless as it sits on your pretty neck, and I know this because I tried on a variation made of rosewood and set with a pear-shaped diamond—a creation that would have dazzled Nancy Cunard, the bohemian heiress from the 1920s who adored wooden baubles. Khouri loves rosewood; she collects rosewood furniture, and some of the pieces in this collection were actually carved from her family’s vintage rosewood trunk.

Khouri began as a sculptor (she still sculpts, but never sells her work) and came to jewelry after a student art project that involved sculptures hanging off the bodies of naked models.  She wanted, she says, to extend that concept, and indeed, her work is meant to exalt the wearer’s physical form (even if these days her clients are fully clothed.) Now, jewels disappear within the ear and cascade in a waterfall of white diamonds; a flexible necklace showcasing two Jarina seeds surrounded by diamonds is intended, Khouri says, to be “super-easy.” Also arguably super-easy, but also super-elegant and super-desirable is a welter of diamond studded chains sporting a pair of Paraiba tourmalines, perhaps intended for the world’s most rarefied punk rocker.

Alas, I am not Nancy Cunard. Reluctantly handing her back that rosewood collar I ask Khouri, “So is the idea that you are part of the jewel?” She smiles and replies, it’s more like, the jewel is part of you.”

Ana Khouri’s collection is on view at Sotheby’s New York this week.