AKILLIS jewellery lands in the Middle East just in time for Ramadan

Ahead of the brand’s flagship store opening in The Dubai Mall, Bazaar caught up with AKILLIS Founder and Creative Director, Caroline Gaspard, as she celebrated their first Middle East event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Jumeirah

As a self entitled “Girl Boss”, Caroline Gaspard is the effortlessly cool Founder and Creative Director of fine jewellery brand AKILLIS. Having launched the label in 2007 and turned many traditional themes on their heads, her collections see bullets as drop pendants in the Bang Bang collection, Cleopatra’s serpent jewels adopting the geometric scales of a deadly python, and love as an eternal trap in the Capture Me pieces.

Caroline’s love for jewellery design started at a much earlier age. “I was eight years old when I decided to set up my brand,” she laughs. “My mother was my main influence as she adored jewellery, and my father’s friend dealt in diamonds and gems that he would bring to our house. I began sketching ideas for jewellery designs based on these stones.”

But she decided to wait until she had graduated from business school before launching AKILLIS. “I was 25, and it had always been my destiny,” she recalls. Since then the collections – all of which are handmade in Paris – have adopted a resolutely contemporary air aimed at the many different female personalities.

Walking Bazaar through the six unique rooms created as part of the event, Caroline explains the different themes of each collection. “This is for the dangerous girl,” Caroline smiles, pointing to the edgy Fatal Attraction bullet designs. “If you’re feeling brave you need a Bang Bang Design, and if you’re in a fun mood then it’s a Puzzle piece for you.”

As for Caroline’s own jewellery preferences? “I love earrings,” she replies, signalling the bejewelled climber currently enveloping her ear. “And it’s always important that my jewels can be worn every day. I often wear a diamond bracelet with jeans, for example.” And for stones: “Paraiba tourmalines,” she says, referring to the electric blue gems famously discovered in Brazil in the 1980s. With over 400 carats of them in the dazzling Guarani high jewellery set in one corner of the room, it is easy to see why.

Courtesy: Harpers Bazaar Arabia