Pratima and Prerna Sethi of Sethi Couture visited their grandmother Kanchan in Indore, India, in December 2014 to celebrate her 90th birthday. The San Francisco–based pair stayed in her home, a 100-plus-year-old dwelling with gold-painted ceilings and ornate woodwork that their father was raised in, soaking in the scenery and spending quality time with family. Each afternoon, their grandmother would arrive to tea dressed to the nines in a beautiful shawl—“A different one every day,” Pratima Sethi maintains—wearing her everyday jewelry: loads of gold bangles on each arm and a pair of diamond studs weighing upwards of 8 cts. t.w. “Every day she is polished and sophisticated,” she adds.
Inspired by the respite—and by the fact that the trip was the first one that the adult sisters have taken together—the pair decided to create a 25-piece SKU collection called Heritage. Some of the styles feature clear nods to family jewelry—brooches with rose-cut and black diamonds—while others speak to motifs and silhouettes in the house, such as scrollwork on railings and designs in floor tiles.
Some pieces with larger diamonds are one-offs while many can be repeated. Retail prices in 18k gold start at $1,300. Future pieces will feature inspired styles from the sisters’ travels as well.
At the Couture shown last month, Pratima told me that they hadn’t yet shared it with their grandmother (only their father has seen it), but they plan to once a larger album of images from the trip is complete. “That’s a work in progress,” she adds.
Grapes on a Vine necklace in 18k white gold with 3.8 cts. t.w. diamonds, $11,000
A second-floor railing and surrounding colors in the family home of the Sethis, located in Indore, India, inspired some jewelry designs—including the Vine necklace above—in the new Heritage collection from Sethi Couture.
Drop Leaf earrings in 18k white and yellow gold with 1.61 cts. t.w. diamonds, $5,300
This gold-painted ceiling medallion in the Sethi family home inspired the design of the Drop Leaf earrings in Sethi Couture’s new Heritage collection.
Vintage brooch in 18k white gold with 3.31 cts. t.w. rose-cut diamonds, $7,150
The colors and floor tile motifs in a hallway in the Sethi family home inspired a vintage-style brooch in black and white gold and diamonds in the new Heritage collection.
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