Shadya Al Ismaily and Suad al Riyami talk to Rekha balakrishnan on the growth of their bespoke brand Deema and trace its journey over the past eight years. Deema today is a formidable brand all set to make a splash in international markets…
In 2008, Shadya Al Ismaily came up with the novel idea of blending tradition with the modern to create exquisite pieces of hand-crafted jewellery. The idea of modernising and simplifying Omani jewellery, yet retaining its exotic looks and charm came to her thanks to encouragement from various quarters, especially her daughter Suad. Incidentally, Shadya and her daughter Suad come from diverse educational backgrounds; the former being a finance professional from the world of numbers and the latter a lawyer. A common love for the arts and a passion for entrepreneurship saw the duo take the huge leap from their respective professions and follow their dreams.
Coming back to Deema’s beginning after long days at work, Shadya would go home and start creating simple necklaces and bracelets using beads. She used Swarovski crystals, pearls and mixed them with traditional Omani silver beads. She ended up with a huge collection of jewellery. Suad encouraged her to have an exhibition. In preparation for this exhibition they gave the collection a brand name; Deema Collection. The exhibition was a huge success; almost all pieces were sold out within the first 45 minutes. And thus Deema came into being in 2009.
The concept of Deema is to bring into traditional Omani jewellery designing a new blend of intercultural artistic tranquillity between that traditional jewellery and the latest trends in the international jewellery markets.
“Each idea generated an idea for the next one, and before I knew it, they kept coming in. My husband also travelled with me extensively to carefully select the materials for my pieces and also provided constructive feedback on each piece I designed,” said Shadya in an interview with our magazine in 2008.
This story is from the January 2017 edition of The Woman.
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This story is from the January 2017 edition of The Woman.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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