Pre-pandemic, Daniella Samper worked over years to create and grow a successful ready-to-wear clothing brand, Ajaie Ajaie, that she loved and a sustainability practice that she hoped she could nurture alongside her apparel label.
Then, during the pandemic, her supply chain dried up. She became burned out. And all of her creativity stopped, as if the joy she previously experienced as a business founder and designer would never come back. Samper struggled to keep her clothing business going, but inside she felt defeated.
But Samper says a trip home to Colombia in December 2021 proved to be the healing she needed. One of the many attributes Colombia has is its emeralds, and Samper says she wanted to see them in person, so she and her father traveled to the local jewelry district. There, a fateful reunion with her maternal cousin, who worked within the emerald industry, gave her that hint of joy that led Samper into jewelry.
“I needed another adventure,” Samper says. “I thrive on dreaming. If I don’t have that, then it’s just a very dull life.”
That day’s travel resulted in a trip to meet emerald experts. Samper started thinking more about how she could use Colombia’s emeralds inside her designs—and to create a new brand that could be more traceable than her fashion and help her fulfill a larger goal of promoting her native country to the world.
“When I started Ajaie Alaie, sustainability was key, but it was not the core, as back then I didn’t know as much as I do now. Now I know more, and I feel that as a designer it is my responsibility to design sustainably, ethically, and practically,” the New York-based artist says. “I have always known that I wanted to take the long, slow, and less traveled route to truly connect with the process that is growing and creating new collections.”
Samper says Colombia and its emeralds were always a part of her life. She was born and raised there, but when she was 12 her family moved to Florida to get away from the violence and turbulence Colombia was experiencing at that time. She finished high school and studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
Samper says she was attracted to wedding gowns and elaborate Victorian dresses but found her voice in ready-to-wear apparel. Her brand grew and well within the United States and Japan, but Samper says she found it challenging to always fully trace where some of the materials came from, something she cared about.
In Colombia, Samper established a supply chain that sources her emeralds from the Guaqueros–independent workers who find emeralds along the river banks, which allowed her to fully trace her emeralds and work closely with the community that lives by this trade.
Her research into the jewelry industry led her to a webinar about Fairmined gold, and her desire to put sustainable materials together in a new jewelry brand was fulfilled. That webinar led to a trip to Peru to visit the certified gold mines, which Samper says helped her close the loop for traceability.
“The work I began to do felt gratifying and rewarding,” Samper says. “I set on a mission to bring more awareness to sustainable mining. The jewelry became a medium to promote better mining practices.”
Her fine jewelry brand, Daniella Samper, uses Fairmined gold and ethically sourced Colombian emeralds, all of which are 100% traceable and sustainable, Samper says.
Now, she dreams of setting the same kind of standards to be applied in emerald mining, and her work is an effort toward one day seeing that change, she says.
Her first collection, Metamorphosis, highlights her Colombian roots and her cultural heritage. It has 11 pieces, including five gold rings, four gold pendants, and two silver pendants.
Metamorphosis features classic motifs, such as spirals representing the never-ending circle of life and a rhombus symbolizing stability, each telling the story of how Samper says the past few years have transformed her. She hopes her calling into jewelry not only shows her growth but also the potential for more sustainable and ethically traced brands within the industry.
“[Daniella Samper] is about getting acquainted with its origins and stories and working toward the positive impact these two natural resources can have on communities in Peru and Colombia while not harming the environment,” Samper says. “Our goal is to shine a light on sustainability practices that are creating long-lasting change for future generations.”
Top: Daniella Samper channeled her pandemic-related burnout into an examination of her own life and her design work. A trip home to Colombia ignited an interest in jewelry, and she hopes to share her love for her homeland’s emeralds and Fairmined gold through her brand (photos courtesy of Daniella Samper).
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