Why designer Annoushka Ducas can’t quit the jewelry biz

When Annoushka Ducas and her business partner and husband, John Ayton, sold their luxury jewelry line Links of London in 2006,🅰 she thought she was done with the biz.

“I sold Links and thought, ‘That’s fantastic, I am going to look after my children and be a perfect mother,’ ” the 48-year-old laughs. But as someone who has worked since she was 17, Ducas was
soon itching to get back in the🌊ಌ game. And so her new line, Annoushka, was born five years ago.

Ducas is in New York to launch her brand at Saks Fifth Avenue, the first retailer to carry her product outside of the UK. A British native of Russian heritage, Ducas’ line is inspired by Russian fables and fairy tales. “It was a huge learning curve,” she says modestly𒊎 of her background in baubles. “I wasn’t trained in jewelry🃏 design or as a gemologist.”

But you’d never guess it looking at her handmade pieces, which feature unusual stones, like labradori﷽te and conifero🌳us quartz.

“I don’t like to use the same thing over and over, 🐼mainly because there are somany new stones to be discovered,” she says.

“There is great fear when women buy jewelry, because it’s an inꦯvestment,” says author Bronwyn Cosgrave, who also🐻 acts as a luxury-brand consultant. “But Annoushka’s jewelry — the workmanship, her track record — it really resonates when you put it on.”

Ducas’ devotees include Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ri𓆉hanna, and she doesn’t second guess her decision to get back in the ✱jewelry business.

“I have the best job,” she says. “You get to come in every෴ day and play with beautiful jew𒀰els people want to wear.”