DALLAS — Brazilian jewelry designer Ana Khouri was the guest of honor Thursday when Net-a-porter Group gathered 30 women for a Champagne lunch at Dallas’ Mansion on Turtle Creek. Khouri’s sculptural 18-karat gold jewelry, including a $28,300 branch of leaves that ornaments the back of the hand, was displayed on black boxes as the centerpiece of the long table.
Khouri has been making distinctive jewelry since 2000 and counts Madonna and other celebrities as private clients, but she kept a fairly low profile until she moved from São Paulo to New York last year and began selling to Fivestory and Colette. Barneys’ New York flagship and Net-a-porter launched the brand in 2013.
“I felt I needed to do it without pressure,” Khouri explained of her delayed venture into wholesaling. “I didn’t want to be the next person to do jewelry. I wanted to have something to say.”
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Even now Khouri produces styles only in numbered limited editions of five or 10, as well as one-of-a-kind works. Her degree in sculpture — which she followed with studies of jewelry design in New York and London — is evident in her designs, such as a four-finger diamond ring made of a single looping ribbon of white gold.
“I feel good when I’m working with my hands, and the piece will tell me where it wants to go,” Khouri said. “I know they are expensive, but we really take time to do them. Each is made start to finish by one person.”
Half her jewelry is produced in Manhattan, and half in São Paulo.