Jewellery designer Anna Hu is subsequent to be welcomed into the Jing Day by day group of people shaping China’s booming luxurious business. These profiles spotlight business leaders who contribute to the nationwide and world trend communities, from creatives and influencers to enterprise executives and entrepreneurs.

Over the past 15 years, the cello-playing prodigy turned jeweler Anna Hu has established herself as a number one gentle in excessive jewellery design. Born in Taiwan and now dwelling between New York, her enterprise headquarters, and Monaco, the 45-year-old has seen her designs featured in artwork festivals and auctions globally — in 2019, she broke the world document for a Chinese language modern jewellery artist in Hong Kong with the sale of her Dunhuang Pipa necklace for $5.78 million (47 million RMB).

Dunhuang Pipa Necklace, commissioned by Sotheby’s and designed by Anna Hu, was offered for US$ 5.78M. Picture: Anna Hu Haute Joaillerie

Made in Paris ateliers, her items are worn by celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Uma Thurman, in addition to entrepreneurs like Wendy Yu and Pansy Ho. One in every of these works, a Yin Yang hand decoration designed in collaboration with American artist-photographer Cindy Sherman, was even acquired by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris for its everlasting assortment in June 2022.

A second-generation diamond vendor’s daughter, Hu initially imagined her life as a cellist, transferring to the US to check till a debilitating shoulder harm left her goals in tatters. Her father prompt a gemology course with the Gemological Institute of America which she took to right away — not as a result of she needed to be a gem-trader herself however to channel her artistry as a designer. After working at Christie’s, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Harry Winston, she debuted her personal assortment in 2007 because the founder and designer of her personal luxurious boutique. Nonetheless, she teases associates that she is an artist making an attempt to be a CEO.

In 2021, Hu started a inventive partnership with Mrs. Alisa Moussaieff in London, one of many world’s most extremely revered gem sellers, whose household enterprise dates again 800 years. Their shut bond has resulted in spectacular high-end items being showcased for the primary time at artwork festivals in Europe this 12 months. Hu’s collectors embody Center Japanese royalty, feminine Hong Kong billionaires, Chinese language entrepreneurs, and even the Queen of Bhutan for whom she created earrings and a brooch for her royal wedding ceremony in 2011.

On the high of her craft, Anna Hu is now increasing her attain in China. Right here, Jing Day by day chats to the completed designer.

You solely create about 20-30 items a 12 months. Are you able to inform us about your inventive course of? 

It’s spontaneous, impressed by music, artwork historical past, and my Chinese language heritage, which provides me a novel design id. I’ve a scholarly method however give the work a up to date attraction. I by no means sketch, the items are too sophisticated. I compose the items with the gem stones like a painter, however portray with precise gem stones.

One in every of Hu’s iconic works is the Monet Water Lilies necklace, which took greater than 10 years to create. Picture: Anna Hu Haute Joaillerie

You unveil collections at artwork festivals like TEFAF and Masterpiece (with Mrs. Moussaieff) and through Paris high fashion week. Do you see a synergy between artwork collectors and folks amassing your work? Is that key to your advertising technique?

My advertising technique could be very easy: I choose the organizations that I really feel perceive and finest current my work, not on a industrial stage however at an artwork stage. Tefaf (The European High quality Artwork Basis in Maastricht) is the very best and I’ll be a part of Tefaf’s New York honest in future. I’ve a mutual understanding with Mrs, Moussaieff that she reveals at Masterpiece in London, and I exhibit at Tefaf, as we now have just a few items in our collaboration that we will share. I additionally present throughout high fashion on the Ritz in Paris.

There are, due to this fact, three channels: firstly, the artwork festivals and museums, then when the timing is correct with auctions. Lastly, my personal channel via my very own jewellery salons, that are extra tailor-made to commissioned items.

Impressed by Twenties French design, the Consuelo tiara-necklace was unveiled at TEFAF Maastricht 2022. Picture: Anna Hu Haute Joaillerie

Excessive jewellery is about constructing private relationships with purchasers. Who’re the standard Anna Hu clients in Higher China and internationally?

They’re assured, unbiased ladies who know what they need and have a excessive stage of training. There are various sorts of rich purchasers, and I’m lucky sufficient to have the ability to select who to work with. Those I click on with finest are extremely mental and unbiased. Lots of jewelers make artwork items to not be worn however displayed and for a male collector that is sensible, however I believe a girl’s physique is a good looking canvas. Subsequently, 99 % of my items are made to suit a girl comfortably.

Lastly, inform us about your retail plans in Higher China? 

My first journey to China was 15 years in the past after I began my model. I opened a retailer within the Bund space in 2013 however briefly moved it again to Taipei [Hu’s flagship is in Taipei’s Mandarin Oriental] as a consequence of a change of operations technique of the mall. I opened a boutique on the Ritz-Carlton in Beijing with a consumer and shut good friend.

Nevertheless, I really like Shanghai and a return is on my to-do listing. We’re open to potentialities however not completely within the Bund space because it issues extra for the situation to have the suitable chemistry with our model and be handy for purchasers. I even have a gallery subsequent to MOMA in New York and am taking a look at opening a non-public showroom in Hong Kong by the tip of the 12 months. It’s all go!