Jewellery is having a moment unlike any other. Over the past few years, prestigious apparel brands such as Prada, Saint Laurent, Gucci and Bottega Veneta have entered the space, competing with household stalwarts like Chopard, Bulgari and Swarovski. At the same time, young designers are setting new trends and meeting diverse price points.
If 2024 was the year of the carabiner, signet ring, lab-grown diamond and freshwater pearl, then 2025 is the year of statement pieces, beads and body jewellery. All are integral to Africa’s jewelled vernacular. Of course, jewellery has long been synonymous with African design — from Maasai beadwork to Tuareg brass talismans — and the continent’s emerging designers have left “novelty” and “souvenir” categories to offer conscious design, using ethically sourced and recycled materials, informed by centuries of history and tradition.
From Ivory Coast to SA, here are the designers to keep an eye out for this year.
Eight African jewellery brands to know
From Ivory Coast to SA, here are the designers to keep an eye out for this year
Image: Supplied
Jewellery is having a moment unlike any other. Over the past few years, prestigious apparel brands such as Prada, Saint Laurent, Gucci and Bottega Veneta have entered the space, competing with household stalwarts like Chopard, Bulgari and Swarovski. At the same time, young designers are setting new trends and meeting diverse price points.
If 2024 was the year of the carabiner, signet ring, lab-grown diamond and freshwater pearl, then 2025 is the year of statement pieces, beads and body jewellery. All are integral to Africa’s jewelled vernacular. Of course, jewellery has long been synonymous with African design — from Maasai beadwork to Tuareg brass talismans — and the continent’s emerging designers have left “novelty” and “souvenir” categories to offer conscious design, using ethically sourced and recycled materials, informed by centuries of history and tradition.
From Ivory Coast to SA, here are the designers to keep an eye out for this year.
Linked in diamonds
Pina Jewels, SA
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Pina has quickly shot up as the it-girl’s go-to, offering funky and nostalgic jewellery in high-quality materials such as 925 sterling silver, freshwater pearls and 18-carat gold. Pina offers a fun twist of classics such as a crochet lace motif on hoop earrings, a daisy-shaped ring band, puffy heart lockets and pearl necklaces wrapped in crochet lace. For the collector, Pina’s daisy charms come with every purchase and work great as bag charms or new additions to your bracelets.
Xita Designs, Botswana
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Xita was founded by Onê Rapelana, who began with upcycling clothing before graduating to turn leather remnants into wearable art pieces. Each of the label’s pieces is crafted by Rapelana in Botswana, combining brass and leather or vegan leather into geometric sculptures that blend hard and soft for distinct bangles, necklaces and small bags.
Adele Dejak, Kenya
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Nigerian-born Adele Dejak’s designs are a love letter to the continent, pulling references and inspiration from multiple regions. The chokers, bracelets and earrings are handmade from cow horns, recycled brass and aluminium, leather and animal hide and take names such as “Mandisa”, “Dhamani Kanini” and “Ayodele”, reflecting Dejak’s pan-African influences. While minimal, the items are anything but basic and guaranteed to elevate any outfit, day or night.
Margaux Wong, Burundi
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Cows are a symbol of wealth in Burundi, and their horns are proof of everlasting prosperity, having been used in jewellery for centuries. This made them an obvious choice for Guyanese-born designer, Margaux Rusita. It also helps that cow horns are a by-product of the meat industry, finding an artful solution to waste that also meets the designer’s Amazonian low-waste values. Not a Burundi native, Rusita became enamoured with the region’s early 19th-century jewellery, which has influenced her bold, floral designs.
Sidai Designs, Tanzania
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Borne out of a desire to preserve and uplift endangered Maasai traditions, Sidai Designs merges cultural heritage and contemporary tastes. The label’s dainty jewellery draws inspiration from the all-white colour palettes of the northern Tanzanian Maasai tribe, along with patterns and shapes commonly found in ceremonial pieces and antiques such as those worn for battle and rites of passage, seeking to turn the average tourist purchase into a meaningful, lifelong heirloom. Notably, its Warrioress collection is the product of the world’s first all-female Maasai silversmith collective.
Yellow, SA
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Handcrafting minimalist jewellery with an edge, Yellow by Jeslea is trend-forward and classic. The label’s most notable pieces are sterling silver and brass biomorphic forms, already favoured by local stars such as Thebe Magugu, Rich Mnisi and Rethread, with whom they’ve recently launched a collaborative collective of modular, multifunctional brooches, belts and earrings. Sourced and manufactured in SA, Yellow seeks to make jewellery both functional and ornamental, and as essential to an outfit as a pair of shoes or a belt.
Biophilia Jewellery, SA
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Defined as a “love of life or living things”, Biophilia Jewellery is a Cape Town-based jeweller that embraces the natural world. The brand’s signature is freshwater pearls, the organic and irregular shapes wholly embraced in their design. As a lover of living things, each piece is meticulously crafted, taking care to remain eco-conscious. All metals are recycled from preloved and vintage jewellery, using offcuts and scraps from other design studios.
Lafalaise Dion, Ivory Coast
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Known as the Queen of Cowries, Dion Dewand Marcia Lafalaise’s namesake label is already a celebrity favourite, first appearing in Beyoncé’s Black is King and then spotted on everyone from Solange to Lupita Nyong’o. Architectural cowrie shell headpieces are the brand’s claim to fame, inspired by Dan culture and with reverence to figures like Mamy Watta. Recently, Lafalaise has continued its exploration of the cowrie shell, this time sculpting it in bronze, silver and gold for larger-than-life brooches, rings and earrings.
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