Founded in late 2025 by sisters Oloof and Dujanah Jarrar, House Janolo may be a young brand, but it has arrived with confidence. Following its official debut earlier this year, the UAE-based label has introduced its inaugural collection, Wild Beginnings—a vibrant exploration of color, craftsmanship, and the natural world.

Inspired by the rhythms and instincts of the animal kingdom, Wild Beginnings translates nature’s complexity into pieces that are highly wearable yet inherently collectible. Through thoughtfully sourced natural gemstones, asymmetry, and a bold use of color, the collection reflects House Janolo’s belief that jewelry should be personal and enduring and shows the fresh perspective the brand brings to contemporary fine jewelry.

At a time when the category is often dominated by heritage houses, the Jarrar sisters are charting their own path through expressive gemstone combinations, rich enamel work, and a design language that feels both playful and refined.

Here, JCK speaks with them about building a jewelry company from the ground up, finding inspiration beyond the jewelry world, and adding a new voice to the Middle East’s evolving fine jewelry landscape.

You grew up and live in the UAE but have now spent significant time in New York—how has that influenced your design perspective and the identity of your brand?

In a very practical way. Our time in New York encouraged us to look broadly for inspiration—studying design at Parsons taught us to be curious, to question assumptions, and to draw ideas from different disciplines. A lot of our references come from outside jewelry: art, interiors, film, architecture, or nature. It also made us comfortable experimenting with color, form, and unexpected combinations.

Living in Abu Dhabi has shaped a different side of our approach. It has made us think more carefully about longevity and wearability. We want our pieces to feel distinctive but also considered enough to be worn, lived in, and collected over time.

House Janolo exists at the intersection of those influences. We are drawn to bold color, strong shapes, and individuality, but we balance that with an emphasis on craftsmanship, permanence, and everyday wear. That combination has become a defining part of House Janolo’s identity.

In what ways did the natural world shape the collection’s designs?

With Wild Beginnings, we were interested in nature not just visually but structurally. In nature, form and function are almost always interlinked; the beauty is never separate from its purpose. That idea shaped the collection from the beginning. We looked to orchids, tiger lilies, sea creatures, animal markings, and other natural forms, but we were less interested in simply replicating what they looked like. We wanted to understand how they exist within their environments, how they protect themselves, communicate, adapt, and evolve.

When designing, we drew inspiration not only from a creature’s markings or colors, but also from its surroundings and behavior. Often a single piece combines several of those references—the enamel pattern may reference the markings of an animal, while the gemstones represent elements of its environment, for example. Together, those details create a small narrative within the piece rather than a direct representation of the source. That storytelling element became an important part of the collection. We wanted the pieces to feel expressive and instinctive, but also intentional.

Many of the pieces are intended for stacking and personal styling. Is that because versatility is important to consumers?

Versatility is very important to us. As sisters, we have a lot of overlap in our taste, but we also style and wear jewelry differently—we often find ourselves taking the same piece and wearing it in completely different ways. One of us might layer it, while the other wears it on its own and lets it be the focus. That became an important design consideration for us. As founders and consumers ourselves, we never wanted House Janolo pieces to feel rigid or tied to a single way of dressing. We wanted them to adapt to different personalities, moods, and styling approaches.

More broadly, we think people are becoming much more personal in the way they buy and wear jewelry. Women are increasingly buying for themselves, which means they are building collections based on their own taste and lifestyle. For us, versatility is not about creating something that does everything, it is about creating something with enough character to stand alone, but simultaneously flexible enough to become part of someone’s existing collection. We want the wearer to have the final say.

Is there a particular jewel in the collection that became the foundation for the broader design story?

It was less one piece and more a small group of pieces that became the foundation for the collection. The first designs we created were the Monarch pendant, the citrine and topaz Lily pendants, and the kunzite and citrine Orchid pendants. Looking back, those pieces established many of the ideas that would later define Wild Beginnings. Those pieces became our playground: They gave us a framework to experiment with color, scale, proportion, and storytelling. They allowed us to test ideas, push proportions, and develop the visual language of the collection. Once we designed those pendants, the rest of Wild Beginnings unfolded quite naturally.

You embrace inclusions and variations in your gemstones rather than viewing them as imperfections. How does that philosophy align with what today’s consumers are seeking?

For us, inclusions and variations are not imperfections, they are part of what makes a stone interesting. When we source gemstones, we are not only looking at technical specifications. We often choose stones based on feeling. Sometimes it is a particular color, sometimes an unusual inclusion, sometimes a characteristic that makes a stone feel completely individual. Those details are evidence of how the stone formed over time, a part of its history.

In today’s world, so much is being refined, edited, filtered, and perfected. As technology advances, there is often an expectation that everything should be flawless. In opposition, what we find beautiful is that natural gemstones resist that. No two stones are exactly alike, and that individuality is something we actively celebrate.

The Middle East has become more and more of a force in luxury and jewelry. How do you see House Janolo contributing to that conversation?

What is exciting about the Middle East right now is the diversity of perspectives emerging from the region. The UAE, in particular, is a place where people from different cultures, backgrounds, and creative disciplines live alongside one another, and that naturally creates new ways of thinking and designing. We see House Janolo as part of a broader shift towards a more personal and contemporary approach to fine jewelry.

We come to the industry first as designers and customers rather than through a traditional jewelry background, which allows us to approach things differently. Our contribution is hopefully a perspective that feels both contemporary and rooted in craft. We want to create jewelry that is beautifully made, but also reflective of the way people live, dress, collect, and express themselves
today.

What distinguishes contemporary jewelry design coming out of the UAE from what’s happening in other major jewelry
markets?

There isn’t one dominant design language—there are so many talented brands emerging from the region right now, and what is interesting is how different they all are. Each designer is bringing their own background, perspective, and experiences into the work rather than following a single regional formula. That diversity is one of the most exciting things happening in the industry today.

I think that comes from the nature of the UAE itself. It is a place where people from different cultures, disciplines, and backgrounds live alongside one another. You are constantly exposed to different ways of thinking, creating, and seeing the world. That naturally creates space for more varied and personal forms of design.

Starting a fine jewelry brand today comes with challenges ranging from rising gold prices to shifting consumer preferences. How are you approaching growth in the current market?

Launching a brand today can feel overwhelming. There is immense talent in the market, constant competition, and no shortage of opinions about what you should be doing. For us, growth starts with having a clear point of view. It’s easy to become distracted by trends or make decisions based on what feels commercially safe, but we try to stay grounded in why we started House Janolo in the first place.

Jewelry is inherently lasting—it holds emotion, memory, and meaning—so it would feel strange to build a brand around something temporary. We’re far more interested in creating pieces people genuinely connect with than chasing what’s popular at any given moment.

We listen, learn, and adapt, but every decision ultimately comes back to the same question: Does this feel true to House Janolo? We’d rather build meaningful relationships with the people who respond to our work than try to appeal to everyone. For us, that’s the most sustainable path to longevity.

Top: Savanna pendant in 18k yellow gold and enamel with 31.77 ct. aquamarine and 5.88 cts. t.w. pink tourmaline, $24,500; House Janolo

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