Noor Fares

The eponymous jewellery line from London-based designer Noor Fares is a complex mix of old-world tradition and modern fashion sensibility.

With an aesthetic informed largely by her Lebanese heritage and worldly, creative childhood, Fares’ pieces are imbued with the assured eclecticism of a born artisan. Days spent rifling through her artist mother’s jewellery box, and playing in her designer aunt’s Paris atelier were to set in motion a love of beautiful objects that inform her work still today.

Following an Art History degree and a host of global adventures, Noor Fares put her love of fine art to work, beginning her design journey with talisman-like, hand-crafted treasures as one-off commissions for her growing bunch of admirers.

Furthering her craft, Noor took a course at the GIA (Gemological Institute of America), learning about the properties of the precious stones as well as the ancient techniques of artisanal jewellery design, finally setting up her own line in 2009.

Using a diverse range of mixed materials from precious stones to fine woods, mother of pearl gold, there is an unexpectedly discreet quality to the finishing, belying the obvious luxury of these materials.

Exploring mythical themes and symbols, the pieces often feature an engraved eye, a way of offering the wearer protection, in keeping with the ancient Lebanese tradition; so too is the reference to traditional mosaic designs anchored in a sense of the sacred. But while these motifs are often grounded in the past, the fine finishing and sculptural, geometric quality lend the range a distinctly modern feel.