LONDON — The British fine jeweler Annoushka, founded in 2009 by the husband-and-wife team that launched Links of London, plans to break into the U.S. market this month at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and Beverly Hills.
Saks will be Annoushka’s first international stockist, and the collection will be an edited version of the brand’s offer online and in-store.
The jeweler has two standalone stores here, one near Sloane Square and the other in Mayfair, and seven shop-in-shops at Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Liberty and Selfridges. The collections also sell on the brand’s Web site.
“It was never our intention to go to the States — we only exist in the U.K. — but 65 percent of our Web traffic comes from the U.S., and [Saks’ president] Marigay McKee asked us to come,” said Annoushka Ducas.
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She pointed out that Annoushka has no U.S. Web site and American customers are buying the merchandise in British pounds from the U.K. site. The brand plans to relaunch its e-commerce site with a U.S. component early next year.
Saks is a great opportunity, she said, adding, “It gives us the chance to put a marker in the sand and give some context to the work we’re doing.”
Ducas is the designer of the richly colored gems, and her specialty is mixing materials, textures and shades. Her collections have a bohemian, handcrafted feel to them, and the color palette is painterly. Jewels range from slim, stackable diamond pavé rings, small charms and clip-on amulets to bolder pieces created around diamonds, semiprecious gemstones and materials such as ebony, mother-of-pearl and agate.
The brand counts among its fans the Duchess of Cambridge — who frequently wears Annoushka’s pearl-drop earrings — Rihanna and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Prices range from about 395 pounds, or $660 at current exchange, for an 18-karat gold-and-diamond letter pendant, from the Alphabet collection; 2,600 pounds, or $4,357, for a large 18-karat gold ring featuring green diamond, labradorite and amethyst, to $37,500 for “One of a Kind” earrings in 18-karat white gold, with diamonds, sapphires and rubies.
Ducas said she always designs with “texture, color and warmth” in mind and favors yellow and rose gold over white gold because the shades are warmer. One of her aims has been “to take the reverence out of jewelry and make it more casual.”
The jewelry is made in London — she has a bench in her Cadogan Gardens store — and in India, Italy and the Far East. Among the collections on sale at Saks will be the Tsar Feather, Arabesque, Dream Catcher and One of a Kind.
The five-year-old business has sales of 8 million pounds, or $13.4 million, with 20 percent like-for-like growth over last year. Ducas founded the business with her husband, John Ayton, a few years after they sold Links of London to the Greek fashion jewelry company Folli Follie in a deal valuing that business at $84 million.