Nature is one of the most familiar starting points in jewellery, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Too literal and it becomes costume; too safe and it becomes forgettable. MAJESTA avoids both, landing somewhere between storytelling and something you would actually wear.
Founded by sisters Maahira and Zahraa Mansoor, the UAE-based fine and high jewellery house looks to Africa’s landscapes, wildlife and natural phenomena. The movement of an animal, the pattern of a feather, the line of a horizon or a particular colour at dusk can each become the seed of a piece, reworked until it feels new without losing its origin.
The house recently launched its first two collections. Croco Chroma follows the Nile and crosses sub-Saharan Africa, taking its cue from the geometry and texture of crocodile scales and the idea of strength in natural armour. The gemstones carry the landscape: emerald for the forest, gold for the savannah at sunset, flashes of light for water under the sun. The contrast is what makes it work. The animal’s toughness is softened by colour, and the pieces gain a personality of their own.
Pavona moves to the Congo Basin and the peafowl, a bird long tied to royalty and display. Its plumage, in its symmetry, its movement and its depth of colour, is the brief. Deep blue stones hold the heart of the feathers; diamonds catch the light the way the plumage does in the sun. Where fine jewellery is often expected to stay quiet, Pavona is made to be seen.
Across both collections, the sisters’ two perspectives meet in pieces built on craft and story, and designed to make you feel something before you even ask what they are made of.