“You can do dressy, you can do casual,” says Tania Shayan of her jewellery brand, Shay, which she designs with her mother Ladan in LA, California. It was Ladan who, following Tania’s making a debut bracelet while at high school, suggested she take it seriously and sell it as a viable product. So, they trooped off down to local stores in Beverly Hills and before Tania knew it she had orders. “And kind of really just expanded from that.”
Today the brand is well known for its chunky pavé-set link chains and can count Hailey Bieber, Rihanna and Karlie Kloss among the converted. It’s also a hit with mums picking up their kids from school, as well as people going to yoga classes.
“I have on our mixed diamond choker, which is composed of all different shapes of diamonds. You’ve got emerald cuts, marquise, trillions, brilliant, hearts,” explains Tania from her office. She is laden in jewels – appropriately. “It’s really wearable,” she says. It’s exuberant and modern, too.
Her mother had actually dealt in jewellery before having a family and so the team-up was a perfect family affair; their HQ began in Tania’s bedroom before moving to the dining room table and then her sister’s bedroom when she left for college; and the duo got to travel together to Paris for appointments when that was allowed.
The brand today is underpinned by a contemporary take on luxury – a few steps on from the leather toggle bracelet Tania made way back when. “We’re using bigger gemstones and [doing] more expensive pieces,” says Tania, acknowledging that the LA jewellery scene is highly competitive. “There’s so many different jewellery brands.” But they have established a following and a style. And always keep themselves on track by asking one simple question: do they like what they have designed? “If we’re not crazy about it then we take it out of the collection.”
A zodiac collection and Ripple collection are among the latest offerings from the brand, a box-link chain of which Tania can’t help but enthuse as being “incredible”.
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