Jewelry designer Anna Hu is subsequent to be welcomed into the Jing Everyday group of individuals shaping China’s booming luxurious sector. These profiles spotlight sector leaders who lead to the national and global vogue communities, from creatives and influencers to small business executives and business people.
Around the final 15 several years, the cello-playing prodigy turned jeweler Anna Hu has recognized herself as a main mild in high jewelry structure. Born in Taiwan and now residing concerning New York, her organization headquarters, and Monaco, her designs attribute in artwork fairs and auctions globally — in 2019, she broke the planet report for a Chinese contemporary jewelry artist in Hong Kong with the sale of her Dunhuang Pipa necklace for $5.78 million (47 million RMB).
Dunhuang Pipa Necklace, commissioned by Sotheby’s and intended by Anna Hu, was offered for US$ 5.78M. Picture: Anna Hu Haute Joaillerie
Produced in Paris ateliers, her pieces are worn by celebs like Oprah Winfrey, Uma Thurman, and business people like Wendy Yu. One of these is effective, a Yin Yang hand ornament built in collaboration with American artist-photographer Cindy Sherman, was even obtained by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris for its everlasting collection in June 2022.
A second-era diamond dealer’s daughter, Hu to begin with imagined her existence as a cellist, shifting to the US to analyze right until a debilitating shoulder injuries remaining her desires in tatters. Her father instructed a gemology training course with the Gemological Institute of America which she took to instantly — not due to the fact she required to be a gem-trader herself but to channel her artistry as a designer. Just after working at Christie’s, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Harry Winston, she debuted her very own selection in 2007 as the founder and designer of her individual luxury boutique. Nevertheless, she teases buddies that she is an artist striving to be a CEO.
In 2021, Hu began a inventive partnership with Mrs. Alisa Moussaieff in London, a person of the world’s most really revered gem sellers, whose household enterprise dates again 800 yrs. Their near bond has resulted in amazing significant-conclusion pieces remaining showcased for the very first time at artwork fairs in Europe this year. Hu’s collectors include Center Japanese royalty, woman Hong Kong billionaires, Chinese business owners, and even the Queen of Bhutan for whom she made earrings and a brooch for her royal wedding in 2011.
At the prime of her craft, Anna Hu is now increasing her get to in China. Listed here, Jing Day-to-day chats to the achieved designer.
You only make about 20-30 pieces a year. Can you notify us about your inventive course of action?
It is spontaneous, influenced by songs, art record, and my Chinese heritage, which provides me a distinctive structure id. I have a scholarly solution but give the work a contemporary enchantment. I hardly ever sketch, the parts are as well difficult. I compose the items with the gemstones like a painter, but painting with true gemstones.
One of Hu’s iconic performs is the Monet H2o Lilies necklace, which took much more than 10 a long time to generate. Image: Anna Hu Haute Joaillerie
You unveil collections at artwork fairs like TEFAF and Masterpiece (with Mrs. Moussaieff) and throughout Paris haute couture week. Do you see a synergy in between artwork collectors and persons collecting your do the job? Is that key to your advertising and marketing tactic?
My marketing and advertising system is quite easy: I choose the businesses that I truly feel understand and best present my operate, not on a professional degree but at an artwork level. Tefaf (The European Great Art Foundation in Maastricht) is the best and I will sign up for Tefaf’s New York truthful in future. I have a mutual knowledge with Mrs, Moussaieff that she shows at Masterpiece in London, and I exhibit at Tefaf, as we have a few parts in our collaboration that we can share. I also exhibit during haute couture at the Ritz in Paris.
There are, hence, 3 channels: firstly, the art fairs and museums, then when the timing is suitable with auctions. Finally, my non-public channel by way of my own jewelry salons, which are additional tailor-made to commissioned items.
Encouraged by 1920s French style, the Consuelo tiara-necklace was unveiled at TEFAF Maastricht 2022. Picture: Anna Hu Haute Joaillerie
Superior jewellery is about constructing personalized interactions with purchasers. Who are the usual Anna Hu consumers in Increased China and internationally?
They are confident, unbiased women of all ages who know what they want and have a significant amount of education. There are lots of forms of wealthy customers, and I am fortunate sufficient to be equipped to pick out who to get the job done with. The kinds I simply click with very best are remarkably mental and independent. A ton of jewelers make art parts not to be worn but exhibited and for a male collector that tends to make feeling, but I consider a woman’s overall body is a wonderful canvas. Hence, 99 % of my items are manufactured to in shape a woman comfortably.
Eventually, explain to us about your retail plans in Higher China?
My initially trip to China was 15 years in the past when I begun my brand name. I opened a keep in the Bund spot in 2013 but temporarily moved it back again to Taipei [Hu’s flagship is in Taipei’s Mandarin Oriental] owing to a improve of functions approach of the shopping mall. I opened a boutique at the Ritz-Carlton in Beijing with a shopper and close buddy.
Having said that, I enjoy Shanghai and a return is on my to-do listing. We are open up to options but not completely in the Bund spot as it issues much more for the area to have the right chemistry with our brand name and be easy for purchasers. I also have a gallery upcoming to MOMA in New York and am seeking at opening a non-public showroom in Hong Kong by the finish of the calendar year. It’s all go!