The adventure of a lifetime
“To be in harmony with your thoughts, your words need to be followed by actions.”
The early stages of an unusual adventure
“I was born in the South-Ouest of France, in a village of 200 inhabitants. As a child, I dreamt of escaping and even sometimes pretended to walk on clouds with a game of mirrors. This need to escape followed me until, when I legally became an adult, I decided to leave for Milan, Italy, where I learned the trade of shoe stylist.
When I returned to France, I became a freelancer for important fashion brands. I was in charge of their shoe departments, in particular with MORGAN for 9 years.
I passed my passion for drawing onto my son Quentin, who would stay next to me and draw for hours. With my desire to share my passion with my son who is now a graphic designer, and with life moving forward, we now manage NAHUA together, as a family.
An encounter later, Laurent, my partner, joined in the adventure. We are now a beautiful family team of jewellery creators, selling online and across the world.
We are proud to put forward hand made ethnic and bohemian pieces of jewellery, created thanks to an ancestral Indian embroidery artistry.
It is a beautiful adventure, a personal accomplishment and an immense joy to have created NAHUA, and to be able to work with incredible people both here and in India.”
Isabelle Moya – NAHUA’s creator
When everything started
In reality, the NAHUA brand could have not existed.
A series of encounters and the start of a long-lasting friendship with a family workshop which was just about to disappear made us who we are now.
It all starts with a phone call. We learn a workshop in India, that used to produce pieces for many haute-couture brands, was about to close down. As a cause, the tragic disappearance of the owner, father of the current one. With this event, many extremely talented craftsmen would lose their jobs, the family would be ruined and their art would be forgotten.
We collaborate with the Galeries Lafayette and learn to work together.
And it clicks.
After weeks of unsuccessful tries, an incredible idea comes to life. We would create ethnic and bohemian pieces of jewellery thanks to this ancestral embroidery technique, instead of embroidering pieces of clothing.
The first NAHUA bracelet was born. It would be called Maheswari!
Everything goes very (too) quickly. With a few prototypes in our bags, we go to our first fair in Paris. We decide to call our brand NAHUA, just a few hours before.
Mountains of people, a major success and many orders allowed us to start our very first production.
6 years later we have 28 themes, have participated in 24 fairs and work with more than 400 retailers across the world.
We are stronger than ever.
“Everything in life I have succeeded in, I did because I didn’t know it was impossible.”
A story of transmission
Our convictions | Our mission
We believe in a just world, where each one’s work would be truly and fairly valued.
Unfortunately, it is not yet the case everywhere in the fashion industry. As evidence, the backstage of this huge industry that never stops producing, as fast as possible, in the greatest possible quantities, with as little expenses as possible.
In the end, those who suffer from this are the workers, at the far end of the production chain.
Much too often, in India and in other countries where your clothes, accessories and pieces of jewellery are made, those workers are children who are forced to work.
We will not comply with these archaic methods.
We respect our craftsmen’s know-how, and we show it.
This is why we have regular checks to make sure no children work in our workshop, that fundamental human rights are respected and that the embroidery craftsmen (called “Karigars”) who work for NAHUA are properly paid.
We believe in a more responsible world and work toward this every day.
We have a mission.
Each one of our pieces of jewellery, created with a unique vertical embroidery technique, is the fragment of an ancestral know-how that dates back to the first maharajas.
To allow this artistry to live on, together with these exceptional craftsmen, we use this technique which was initially meant for the creation of ceremonial clothing and the Indian army’s uniforms, thus allowing this history to perpetuate and many Indian families to keep living from their art.
The creative process
Each season, two themes are created, produced and sold.
The creative process is therefore vital, as it carries the weight of the brand’s future and therefore, our craftsmen’s future too. A failed collection is not an option for either party in this beautiful adventure. Working toward our goal, we focus and seek inspiration for weeks before our pens even touch paper.
The first step to creating a good quality, ethnic and bohemian piece of jewellery within NAHUA will be to find inspiration in trends of the upcoming season, whether they are shapes, styles or colours.
A mood-board is then created. From there on and after weeks of thinking, the pen usually finds its own way.
We create all our ethnic and bohemian pieces of jewellery using templates we have created. This allows us to standardize sizes and have a perfect pattern to send to our workshop, where it will be embroidered by hand.
We call these technical sheets “kahkas”. They allow our embroidery craftsmen to know the precise dimensions, exact colours, and to reproduce each detail that constitutes the piece of jewellery.
The production process
Once they have received the model of a specific piece of ethnic and bohemian jewellery, our family workshop in India create a first model, as precisely as they can.
The template is traced thanks to a complex process on looms which can measure up to several meters in our workshop.
They are long strips of very fine material, stretched as much as possible, at a reasonable distance from the floor, therefore allowing to embroider vertically.
It is thanks to this ancestral technique, passed on from one generation to another, that the NAHUA jewellery can come to life.
Immense dexterity and years of experience allow our craftsmen to wield thread and needle without looking, extremely quickly. We are proud to commend this both meticulous and elegant embroidery artistry.
As for the rest, we will write it thanks to you.
