Khiry’s Jameel Mohammed Honored in Tiffany x CFDA Jewelry Designer Competition

By Karen Dybis | February 13, 2025

Jameel Mohammed has earned recognition from the industry and leading media, including The New York Times, for Khiry, the Afrofuturist jewelry brand he founded in 2016, but he’s facing one of the biggest moments of his career now as the recipient of the inaugural Tiffany & Co. x CFDA Jewelry Designer Award.

In March, Mohammed will begin a one-year paid fellowship in Tiffany & Co.’s design department. The Jewelry Designer Award also includes $50,000 cash.

“This first-of-its-kind award exemplifies Tiffany & Co.’s long-standing commitment to inclusivity and showcases Tiffany Atrium’s mission to support emerging talent and champion inclusivity within the jewelry industry,” said Stéphanie Oueda-Cruz, Tiffany’s vice president for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, in a statement for JCK.

“It’s the largest reflection of my entrepreneurial journey…. I’m so, so honored,” Mohammed says. “I’m completely self-taught, so I’m always trying things, seeing what works and what doesn’t.… It’s been a natural time to step back and analyze what has happened and what could happen next.”

After a four-month-long program with nine other finalists, Mohammed found out in January that he was the winner of the Tiffany x CFDA award. As part of the application process, he created a collection called Wildflower, which he describes as “a story of resilience, of beauty triumphing over adversity, of toughness balanced with softness and grace.”

“Over the course of four months, our selection committee was able to experience Jameel’s inventive design perspective firsthand, and we look forward to welcoming him as a part of the Tiffany & Co. team,” Oueda-Cruz said.

Jameel Mohammad Tiffany — Jameel Mohammed (second from right) at the announcement event for the Tiffany & Co. x CFDA Jewelry Designer Award, with (from left) Steven Kolb, CFDA chief executive officer; Bethann Hardison, CFDA board member and advocate; and Stéphanie Oueda-Cruz, a Tiffany & Co. vice president

Mohammed was encouraged by friends and family to apply for the award. “Throughout this entire journey, there have been so many people who have talked me down off of the ledge just to write the application,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t know whether I would have been able to show up as well as I did had they not.”

He has worked in fashion since 2012 and in jewelry since 2014. Between his work on Khiry, the Tiffany application, and a new role he took in September 2024 as a freelance jewelry designer, Mohammed has learned more about himself and where he wants to go with his career, he says, adding that he is immensely proud of the work he has done and excited about where he may go in the future.

“With my current job, it was the first time I worked anywhere full-time, and it was another kind of affirmation in the process. It was the next best step in my career, and I saw how much it made my life better to have predictable income and a group of people that I can come to to talk, get feedback, and share the stumbling blocks,” says Mohammed.

“It also affirmed how much I could stand to gain doing a job in design at a brand like Tiffany,” he says. “What I’m most interested in is seeing the things I never could have considered—commercial considerations like sourcing, production, design. All of those things have to be considered by designers working at this scale.

“A huge organization like Tiffany know so much more about marketing, advertising, and business outside of the design process. I’m excited to see it all.”

Top: Jameel Mohammed is the inaugural recipient of the Tiffany & Co. x CFDA Jewelry Designer Award. (Photos by Neil Rasmus/BFA.com, courtesy of Tiffany & Co.)