The outlook towards wearing jewellery has undergone a tremendous change. From flashy and elaborate gold metal the shift is towards ‘less is more’. Jewel Box by Arnav founded by Ashwini Oza and Chetan G Raja, marries timeless, iconic designs with trendier, of-the-moment baubles. The Bangalore-based jewel house offers a versatile mélange of bespoke, handcrafted, designer fashion jewellery in base metals, silver, and gold & diamonds, with over 30 designers under one roof. We zero in on their bridal edit and Ashwini takes us through the brand.
Tell us about Jewel Box by Arnav. Why did you start it?
I established Jewel Box by ARNAV with my husband Chetan G Raja. Jewel Box was founded with the thought of creating a platform to make Indian artistry and workmanship mainstage. We want to support our local artisans and designers, by giving them access to take their craftsmanship to a larger audience across India and the world. I am a graduate interior designer and have worked for more than a decade under very creative, innovative and competent minds in the industry, transforming spaces and bringing life to all. Creativity and imagination have always been my strength and it has been a challenge that I love to take on to turn the mundane into something thrilling, vibrant and full of life.
I married into a family of jewellers, I learnt that my artistic skills and ideas would be better used to give shape and life to gemstones and precious and other metals and materials. I pursued research in the field of jewellery design, gemstone understanding, metallurgy and shape & style and jewellery history. And here we are today.
The bespoke pieces strike a healthy balance between heritage and vintage jewellery and contemporary aesthetics. Give us more info on the design philosophy.
India is known for its rich cultural heritage, and jewellery is a very significant aspect of our culture, especially for Indian women. If you look back to the imperial period – every monarchy prided itself on its collection of jewels. The Indian royalty was renowned for their love for intricately designed jewellery.
Our pieces are rooted in India’s rich cultural heritage and infused with new life and design elements that are contemporary and trendy. We’re also working with designers to play around with different materials to create signature pieces – glass, wood, steel, upcycled material – all these are in vogue. The consumer’s desire to tell a story and make a statement with everything they wear is encouraging designers to experiment with various versatile materials. Put together with creativity and the right aesthetics, they come together to make beautiful pieces of jewellery.
What can one find in the collection at Jewel Box?
Our hand-picked collection of jewellery is intuitively curated to offer versatile and statement options for the ever-evolving woman. Our designers are based across India, and each of their collections has a great story to tell. We have a store in Jayanagar, Bangalore. For many people, buying jewellery is still a very personal experience – they like to come to the store, try on the different pieces and create their own signature looks taking help from our stylists.
Future plans?
Our plan is to go the omnichannel route, with owned stores across different cities in India. For a lot of people, the experience of coming into a store, trying and then buying jewellery is an experience in itself that cannot be substituted for making the purchase completely online. Especially in tier 2 and 3 cities, where they do not have the choices and options that we have in metro cities.
Our products are already available on our website – targeting consumers across India and overseas as well. This will continue, and we will work to make the experience more seamless.