CHENNAI: Just one piece of jewellery is enough to make a statement, says jewellery designer and former Miss India Queenie Singh. “Just like I’m wearing this necklace,” she says, running her hands along the majestic piece set with neatly cut gemstones. “I do not need a matching pair of earrings to go along with it, this in itself is loud,” she says.
Jewels by Queenie, as her collection is called, brought to Chennai the exquisite jewellery pieces inspired from the ‘Red Carpet’ at Evoluzione recently. Queenie was at Cannes this year and thought it made sense to bring out a collection which showcases the kind of designs worn there. “I was there at Cannes not for my jewellery but just for fun,” she says. Though she had started working on the collection before the visit, it reinforced her idea about the theme. “The current collection is timeless and expressive, the kind seen at the grand event,” she adds.
An array of handlets, palm cuffs, necklaces and rings, with a myriad of designs inspired from a menagerie of snakes, horses and butterflies form part of the collection. “Snakes are considered lucky and ward off envy, butterflies denote beauty and horses, dynamism,” she says. This particular collection, she says is louder — more necklaces, big dome-type rings and long earrings.
“I cannot pick out one thing that inspired me to come up with this collection, it can be anything from good stones, embroidery, glamourous women, architecture, or nature. Like a few years ago, I went to Venice, and I made earrings inspired by the architecture there,” she says, scanning her eyes around to give an example. “Like the kurti there,” she points at a green embroidered wear, “Looking at that design, I might get the idea to make a beautiful piece with dull gold,” she says.
The spontaneity is not surprising, for Queenie has been designing jewellery ever since she was a teenager, even before she became Miss India in 1987. “But I made it my profession 10 years ago,” she says. Now, her jewellery pieces are worn by A-Listers like Kangana Ranaut, Malaika Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Amrita Arora.
Queenie says she is familiar with the city as she has been here six times to showcase her jewellery collection. Besides that, she had been part of the modelling circuit here during her run up to Miss India.
Above all, what connects the Mumbai designer to the South is her jewellery. “Kollywood’s star Sridevi wears my collection!” she says.