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JADE TRAU’S BEJEWELLED TRIBUTE TO HER LATE GRANDFATHER

New York City native and jewellery designer Jade Trau named her latest collection “Poppy” after her grandfather, which was a nickname she used to call him. “Poppy is the reason I am doing what I am doing. He taught me to be a person of integrity and honesty, and told me many times that in this business, you are only as good as your word,” shares Jade. “We were extremely close. We worked across the desk from one another for a decade before he started to slow down professionally, but of course he was in his 90’s by then.”

In 2020, Jade was inspired to work on a collection that was floral inspired. When the city and the rest of the country was in lockdown mode, she would go on walks in her neighbourhood. “Over that time, I started to have favourite trees. I’m pretty sure that’s what got me thinking about flowers and how they could have a place in my own personal collection,” she recalls. Besides, 2021 would have been her grandfather’s centennial birthday. “It’s pretty unusual for me to name a collection I haven’t designed yet, but that was how it went.”

Jade’s grandfather was diamantaire, who had a diamond cutting factory in New York City. “His focal point was always on how well the diamond was cut so I was trained on the tiny nuances on what makes one diamond ‘sparkle’ more than the other from day one of my career. It was something that took me a decade to really learn.”