Jewelry as an Object
A Lifelong Obsession
Jewelry has always been more than decoration for me. In my twenties, I began collecting vintage costume jewelry with my mother. YSL, Dior, Valentino, and Givenchy, found through online auctions and old perfume shops that still carried jewelry alongside fragrance. We searched for bold statement pieces, never delicate or minimal.
When I moved to Dubai almost a decade ago, I realised I could design and have pieces made. It became a quiet obsession. I wear rings on every finger except my thumbs, their shapes too unusual for closed bands to fit. Strangers often asked about them, and the idea of making jewelry, the first category for AFORMA, began to take shape.
Why Jewelry Stands Apart
Clothing may hold memory, but it wears down with time. Jewelry has permanence. It can outlast its original owner, carrying both material and emotional value forward. That permanence changes how you design, knowing a piece might live with someone for decades, perhaps even generations.
Not About Eras
AFORMA jewelry doesn’t follow historical styles or specific cultural references. My work returns to geometry, proportion, and the architectural clarity of simple shapes. I’m interested in how an object can be worn more than one way, but not every piece needs to transform. Sometimes the pleasure is in a single, perfect moment.
Gold and Stones
All AFORMA’s debut pieces are made in 18k yellow gold with diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. Yellow gold has always been my preference, for its warmth, durability, and the way it holds up without scratching too easily. I love when people mix metals, but for me, yellow gold feels timeless.
Everyday and Transformative
Some designs are built for versatility, like the Vertex ring and Versa earrings. The ring can be worn alone or paired with an earring that it threads through. The earrings can be flipped, emeralds on one side, rubies on the other, each side with its own geometric form. But other pieces are made to be worn exactly as they are, day after day, becoming part of you.
A Personal History
My connection to jewelry began in childhood. I was fascinated by geology, collecting and cutting rock samples to examine under my microscope. At the end of primary school, my parents asked what I wanted as a gift, and I said a diamond. We found one at a mineral exhibition at Lisbon’s Natural History Museum. Thirty years later, I set that diamond into a ring I wear today.
How I Imagine It
I want AFORMA jewelry to live with people in their own way, worn daily, kept for special moments, or passed down. I want to see it styled for casual afternoons and for grand occasions, adapted to different wardrobes, made personal by the person who wears it.
Why It’s Ours
There are incredible jewelry brands in the world, and you can’t help but be inspired by them. But I create with the hope that AFORMA pieces feel like nothing else, shaped by my eye for scale and proportion, informed by years of collecting, and designed to carry their own weight in someone’s life.