The Monaco-Based jewellery artist is entering a dazzling new creative chapter.
Monaco and the French Riviera have long inspired artists and creatives—Impressionist painters including Monet and Renoir, of course, but also fashion’s great and good including Karl Lagerfeld, Coco Chanel, Christian Louboutin and Hedi Slimane. Many of them both lived and worked in the Principality—with the latest designer to join the roster the Chinese jewellery artist Anna Hu.
“Monaco is a unique place where nature and an international spirit blend seamlessly. Living here has encouraged me to slow down, observe more deeply and find inspiration in subtle details,” says Hu from her home, an expansive space with panoramic, wall-to-wall views of Square Beaumarchais, Port Hercule and the Mediterranean in the distance. “Living here has brought a new sense of balance and perspective to both my life and creativity.”
That fresh perspective makes its way into her latest work, which naturally has a sparkling Monegasque touch, but also a certain frisson amid the backdrop of the Riviera. The region’s extraordinary light, immortalised by Monet and Matisse, must flood into Hu’s studio daily, its range of colours—from dusty pink to amber tones—deeply inspiring for a jeweller. Add to that Hu’s love of nature and particularly flowers, and her work today carries a distinct new identity.
There was last year’s standout La Rose Gracieuse brooch, which paid homage to the legacy of Princess Grace of Monaco and her famed Bal de la Rose charity. Crafted in velvety-like titanium—a tactile, matte-finished material that took Hu years to perfect—the brooch is trimmed in spinels and rubies, a 1.18-carat vivid yellow diamond nestled in the centre alongside brown diamonds, emeralds and diamonds on the rose’s stem.
More recently, this summer, Hu unveiled Jardin Emeraude de Monte-Carlo, an emerald suite that’s a love letter to the local Exotic Garden, the stunning cliffside park famed for its rare assortment of cacti and succulents. Natural Zambian emeralds, in delectable oval and round cabochons, pulse with an innate radiance in a standout necklace and matching earrings, with head-turning sizes to match: five in total of 113.15-carats on the necklace, and four of 60-carats in the earrings, all paired with just shy of 2,000 diamonds shimmering against white gold. Certainly a masterpiece to match the verdant splendour of its namesake.
Spectacular cabochons are also the main act of Hu’s new Route des Fleurs Impériales suite—here, natural pink tourmalines, and again its design imagined through signature codes, in particular a fusion of east and western sensibilities as much as past and present. With their neon raspberry and almost electric fuchsia hues, the stones are inherently feminine, if not a nod to Hu’s now-hometown too. “Since I moved to Monaco, I’ve immersed myself in the cultural and artistic spirit of the Mediterranean coast deeply,” she says. “I’m particularly captivated by the effortless elegance of the women of the French Riviera, their confidence and timeless femininity.”
Featuring a necklace, bracelet, earrings and a ring, the suite is fully colour saturated thanks to the addition of pink sapphires and diamonds, with Hu calling the pink shade a “cultural memory” that embodies a range of allusions. She references Persian pink silks and Byzantine mosaics, Silk Road embroidery and Tang Dynasty arabesques, all via the femininity of 1950s Parisian high jewellery. Cabochons—beloved in eastern cultures from Persia and India to Imperial China—were chosen for their depth and emotion, which emanates from the ring set with a single 14.98-carat pink tourmaline, festooned with 14 Burmese pink sapphires and 38 diamonds. Or cue the pair of tourmalines, totalling 31.85 carats, that dangle from the earrings, complemented by a pink explosion of 28 Burmese pink sapphires of 12.36-carats in total.
Eight years into calling Monte-Carlo home, it’s clear that Hu is at the height of her powers, both creatively and perhaps even physically. “Over time, Monaco has become more than a home,” she says. “It’s become part of my creative world, continuing to shape the way I see beauty and create jewellery.”
