For jewellery maven Farah Khan, nature, architecture, and love serve as eternal muses, forming the core of her design sensibility. Be it high jewellery collections or her prêt line, every piece stands as an ode to the places, people, and experiences that have shaped her life. Now considered one of India’s foremost jewellery designers, Khan started her journey by studying gemstones at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Santa Monica—an experience that taught her every stone has its own personality, strengths, and limits. She topped her gemmology class, spent years apprenticing and crafting bespoke pieces, and officially launched her fine jewellery brand, Farah Khan Fine Jewellery, in 2004.

“Inspiration is rarely a sudden moment,” Khan says, when asked about what inspires her, adding, “It’s usually something that stays with me—a flower I notice while travelling, the symmetry of a Mughal archway, the movement of water, or even the way light falls on an old building. I collect these moments almost subconsciously.” For her, creating a piece of jewellery usually starts with observation and emotion rather than sketching. She explains, “I ask myself what it is about that image or experience that moved me. Was it the softness, the strength, the rhythm, the colour? Once I identify that feeling, I start translating it into form.”

Natural diamonds may remain timeless, but collectors are increasingly embracing coloured gemstones for their rarity, individuality and investment potential. Millennials and Gen Z are driving a shift towards expressive jewellery, favouring distinctive colours, unusual cuts and exceptional provenance over traditional diamond-centric designs.

This growing demand has strengthened the auction market, where gemstones from celebrated origins—such as Kashmiri sapphires, Colombian emeralds and Burmese rubies—are commanding premium prices. With finite natural supply and dwindling mining sources, these stones are increasingly viewed as scarce alternative assets that combine beauty with long-term value.

Collectors are also diversifying their portfolios by exploring stones ranging from Mahenge spinels to Burmese blue sapphires, recognising their resilience and rarity. The trend is reflected in the broader market, with the global coloured gemstones industry projected to grow at a 6.6% CAGR, while sapphires, pearls, rubies and emeralds accounted for 31% of jewellery lots sold at auction during 2025–26.

I was introduced to Viren Bhagat in 2009 or 2010 by a mutual friend during one of my occasional visits to Bombay, now Mumbai. I’m a journalist, and I was there to write about something or other—not about Viren, in any case. So, this was a purely social introduction, a happy accident. We hit it off immediately. The conversation flowed easily. Naturally, we talked a lot about jewellery, but we talked about all kinds of other things as well—mainly Mumbai, which I love but know only superficially, and which he loves and knows deeply. Other meetings followed, in London and back in Mumbai. Eventually, in 2012, I wrote a longish story about him for the magazine I was working for at the time. Viren was already famous by then, a legend in the jewellery world, and his reputation has only continued to grow in the years since.

People often ask me what he’s like as a person and what I think of him as a jeweller.

As a jeweller, Viren’s one of the very best and, like all the very best, exists in a category of one. He’s often compared to JAR (Joel Arthur Rosenthal) or Jacques Cartier, and such comparisons are perfectly understandable—though I’d say they’re better understood not as comparisons, exactly, but rather as compliments, as a measure of brilliance and originality, not likeness. These jewellers have transcended the profession of precious craftsmanship to some extent, and have paved the way for collectors to reimagine what ‘jewellery’ actually means.

You could study photographs of Viren’s lean, expressive face and extrapolate from his eyes and features a combination of seriousness, soulfulness, and amusement.

This would be entirely accurate. And the amusement is, I think, crucial. He’s got a great sense of humour and, though he’s a kind, solicitous, and generous man, he occasionally enjoys a gentle practical joke. For example, on one of my trips to Mumbai, I joined Viren and his wife at a cocktail party at the Gymkhana…

Read the full story in the special ‘Joaillerie Market’ issue of LuxeTrope, on stands now.