Yahoo Lifestyle Jia-Jia Zhu Bets on Pearls With the Launch of New Jewelry Brand
LONDON — Jia-Jia Zhu, founder of the jewelry brand Jia Jia, is moving beyond making jewelry with crystals — she’s now dabbling in pearls with the launch of her new brand, Atlas Love.
“I wanted to create with pearls to encapsulate its energy and natural shapes in a modern, elevated and playful nature. Atlas Love was created to honor the essence of the divine woman and all the parts we become throughout our life,” she said in an interview.
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The brand is separate from Zhu’s first brand and it will be solely focused on making jewelry using 18-karat gold and pearls as she steps into the fine jewelry market.
Atlas Love ranges in price from $400 to $4,000, as well as offering a custom service for clients.
“Pearls are the crystals of the sea. They symbolize wisdom and serenity, luck and spirit. The power of the pearl supports us in accessing faith, trust and honesty within us all,” said Zhu. “The brand was born during a time when I became a mother, when I accessed a new part of myself as a woman. It is to honor the lineage of all women past, present and future.”
In Greek mythology, pearls represent ultimate femininity. The goddess Aphrodite, ruler of love, was born from sea foam and her tears of joy were made of pearls.
The first collection from the brand is named after the goddess of love featuring gold wire necklaces, bracelets and rings that are one size and bendable, allowing customers to morph their own creations.
“Bendable jewelry is very desirable especially in rings and bracelets because there is a barrier to purchase due to sizing, which we won’t have,” explained Zhu, who is using freshwater pearls from Hong Kong, Australian South Sea pearls and Tahitian pearls to make the pieces.
She saw the gap in the market when her clients were coming to her asking for pearls. However, it didn’t sit right with her to integrate pearls into Jia Jia because crystals represent energy of the earth and pearls represent water.
Zhu has spent three years developing Atlas Love, from design business development to a business model, but there’s also a personal and sentimental meaning to the brand.
When she was pregnant, she was drawn to wearing pearls because they made her feel elegant and confident. She moved back to her coastal town in California, where she would take daily walks along the sea with her daughter, Atlas Love, who the brand is named after.
“She was named after the intention that we are our own maps through life and our biggest resource is to look within ourselves for our atlas to guide us. Motherhood was a time where the energy of pearls — divine femininity, power, discovery and inner wisdom — served as a guide for me,” she said.
Zhu is approaching the launch of the brand with pure intuition and a gut feeling rather than depending on investors.
“The universe supports us in where we are in the present moment; there are ways to orient ourselves in utilizing our inner and outer resources to support our visions. I believe in utilizing the resources we have in the moment without overspending in creative, design and production,” she said.
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