In the Media: Vogue India | February 8, 2023

What do women want? […] The answer is what led to the creation of Her Story—a contemporary jewellery brand founded to add meaning to jewellery purchases. Shedding light on these learnings is Sitanshi Talati-Parikh, Creative Director, Her Story: “We found that meaningful purchases are more relevant today than ever before for the modern woman, versus those that are purely acquisitional.” For instance, a client wrote to the brand during the pandemic about a Her Story jewel her partner had given her based on a poem that described her personality. “It gave her the strength to hold on through difficult times, because it represented her partner’s love and presence while they physically couldn’t be together,” she says. 

In Talati-Parikh’s words, these learnings built a ‘library of emotions’ based on which the brand opened its doors—first as a pop-up boutique in Mumbai’s Altamount Road in 2019 and then as a brick-and-mortar in Mumbai’s art capital, Kala Ghoda in 2022. We delve a bit deeper into these perspectives that the team gleaned from real experiences of women and deep-diving into biographies of women achievers, global feminist writing and literature together with live consumer research with women of varied ages and profiles. For instance, some women are motivated by the idea of ambition and drive. This idea formed the basis of Her Story’s very first collection, ‘Limitless.’ “Smriti Madhana, the opening bats person for the Indian women’s cricket team and the campaign face of this collection, speaks of growing up as a woman in the world of cricket in India. She shares what it means for her to represent the country in the sport and how she feels ‘limitless’ on the 22-yard wicket,” says Talati Parikh. 

So how do these learnings translate into an actual design process? “It takes 9-12 months to build a collection from start to finish, including consumer feedback and research at key stages. Once the essence of a story is captured, the design team interprets it through a deep creative exploration, to find evocative metaphors and create relatable symbolism inspired by art, architecture and nature. Master artisans then carefully handcraft every piece,” she further adds. 

The pieces are brought to life using best-in-class diamonds with special cuts along with gemstones that are all set in 18K gold. Each of the diamond pieces are layered with meaning. “Perspectives of modernity is our starting point for each collection, and the materials are chosen based on how they support the idea of the collection and the metaphor it is based on,” elaborates the creative director.  So, for instance, triangle-shaped diamonds have been used in a vertical pattern in the Limitless collection because “they aptly represent the idea of verticality, height and a skyline that speaks of limitless possibilities,” as Talati Parikh tells us. On the other hand, tulip-shaped, rose-cut and pear-shaped diamonds have been used in the style of Chantilly lace in the C’est L’Amour collection to convey the strength of love. […]