The Lace Neckpiece

At Ahalya, we believe that jewellery should evolve with its wearer, gracefully accompanying every stage and season of life. Recently, a client came to us with a particularly meaningful request: a piece to mark her daughter’s eighteenth birthday. It was to be one of the young woman’s first custom-made pieces of jewellery, and our client wanted something her daughter could cherish now, yet continue to wear as she steps into new chapters of adulthood. For us, this called for a design rooted in timelessness and touched with a contemporary sensibility – because the classic never goes out of style.

We designed a necklace that met the brief – delicate yet with substance. This gently layered style blends a classic appeal with modern geometric lines. Traditionally, such a piece might be constructed by varying the size of the gems from the innermost links to the outer edge to allow the necklace to expand outward. Instead, we chose a more intricate path: keeping every gem identical in size and graduating the links both vertically and horizontally. This approach demands meticulous calculation and absolute precision, resulting in a structure that is as refined and delicate as lace.

The clasp is thoughtfully designed to support the full width of the necklace while blending seamlessly into the overall form, ensuring a perfect fall against the body. The inner circumference was customised to fit our client precisely. To recreate this design in another size, therefore, each element would have to be re-engineered from scratch; it cannot simply be scaled up or down.

The necklace features brilliant rose-cut diamonds paired with pearls, all set in 18-karat fine white gold with its soft, pale warmth. Together, they create a gentle, luminous shimmer – subtle, elegant, and never overpowering.

This piece embodies what we cherish at Ahalya: crafting jewellery that honours tradition while embracing innovation in design and execution, and designing pieces that will grow with a wearer, remaining relevant and meaningful through the years.