HELLO! India Exclusive: Understanding Hanut Singh's fluency in the language of stones

At the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Beyoncé was seen wearing a pair of blue chalcedony earrings. Despite the numerous outfit changes she had over the day, this pair remained the one constant — and eventually cemented Hanut Singh’s position in the global jewellery domain. 

Since then, everyone from Meryl Streep, Madonna, Cher, Christian Louboutin, and Rihanna in the West to Isha Ambani Piramal, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt, Dimple Kapadia, and Shweta Bachchan back home have been seen wearing his distinctive designs — architectural in nature, eclectic in embellishments, talismanic in motifs. 

“In 2006, to suddenly see someone of Beyoncé’s calibre and presence wearing my pieces was surreal,” he recalls. 

“What made it even more meaningful was that there was no publicist, no paid placement, no commercial arrangement. She simply saw the pieces, connected with them, and chose to wear them. That was my first real ‘pinch me’ moment.” 

AN AUTODIDACTIC ARTISTE 

The hallmarks of Hanut Singh jewellery are myriad: sculptural symmetry, serpentine forms, the all-seeing eye, and totemic shapes meant to protect or ground the wearer, all embellished with a multifarious mix of precious and semiprecious materials like rock quartz interwoven with gold, pearls with abalone shells, and often hard-carved layering of stones within a stone.

Movement is another signature aspect of his creations, such as earrings and other tassel-backed pieces that sway softly with the body. 

His ideas employ the pietra dura inlay techniques from Mughal and Rajput courts, as well as influences from Indian tribal aesthetics and the European styles of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, which hark back to his royal ancestry. The grandson of Maharajkumar Karamjit Singh of Kapurthala and his glamorous wife, Maharani Sita Devi — they belonged to the legendary era of international high style and patronage of European jewellery makers — Hanut grew up surrounded by the heirloom pieces they commissioned from houses like Cartier. 

Over time, he developed a love for craftsmanship and rare gems that led him down the path of jewellery making, also earning him the proud label of being self taught. Unlike the majority of his contemporaries, Hanut came into jewellery completely untrained. This unique dissimilarity, in many ways, worked out to be one of his greatest strengths. 

“There was a purity in the way I approached jewellery because I wasn’t carrying the weight of formal rules or a prescribed design language,” he explains. “I was simply driven by curiosity and an enormous appetite to learn.”

THE WORLD IS HIS OYSTER 

Much of Hanut’s designs feels personal because he’s built his body of work “from my own lexicon of ideas rather than from a conventional education.” 

“For me, the journey has never really been about mastering a syllabus; it’s been about training my eye. The more I look, the more I learn, the more I create, the more that eye evolves.” 

Hanut’s timeless designs transcend generational appeal. They have an unmistakably modern result despite the age-old techniques he employs.

 “I love clean lines, strong geometry, and a sense of structure, but I soften that with ancient craftsmanship, traditional techniques, and historical motifs that I’ve absorbed over the years,” he says. “I’m not interested in recreating the past; I’m interested in distilling it into something that feels entirely contemporary. I think that’s what gives the work its identity — it carries echoes of history but never feels historical.” 

In essence, Hanut finds a myriad influences in the world around him — from a piece of music, the rhythm of a dance, architecture, sculpture, a line drawing, a watercolour, or a miniature painting; from museums and tribal art, from nature and the cosmos, from the movement of water, the majesty of a big cat, or the way someone carries themselves. 

“Sometimes, inspiration is monumental, and sometimes, it’s incredibly intimate. It might be the calyx of a lotus, the unfurling of a flower, or the fragrance of a magnolia I’ve just picked from my garden. All of these experiences find their way into my subconscious and eventually into my work. 

“I don’t really distinguish between ‘major’ and ‘minor’ influences. If you’re open to the world, everything has the potential to seem profound. The real art lies in seeing. 

TRANSCENDING TIME & TRENDS

Fashion is seasonal, jewellery is eternal — this one statement sums up why the designer shuns the idea of collections. Hanut chooses, instead, to simply augment his body of ideas rather than a series of chapters with a beginning and an end. 

“Each new piece expands the universe I’ve been building over the years. A beautiful jewel should be as relevant 20 years from now as it is today. So, I’ve never felt the need to divide my work into Spring/Summer or Autumn/Winter collections,” he shrugs. 

“Of course, there are periods where certain ideas, colours or motifs naturally occupy my mind more than others, so there may be an underlying narrative running through a body of work. But I don’t consciously create collections. I simply add to my vocabulary as a designer.” 

Bijouterie bailiwicks need no referendum to declare Hanut Singh an authority in storytelling through gems and jewellery. Every piece he conceptualises carries a story, beginning with his own intention, curiosity, and emotional journey. 

“I simply begin the conversation,” he asserts. “As a designer, I can speak about what inspired me, what I was thinking, or what moved me to create a particular piece. The moment that jewel belongs to someone else, I hope the story becomes entirely theirs. 

“Jewellery is deeply personal, and every wearer brings their own memories, milestones, and emotions to it. The person who wears the jewel — their experiences, their celebrations, and their life — ultimately gives the piece its true meaning.” 

MEMORIES OVER MONIES 

The most meaningful pieces are usually tied to life’s milestones — an anniversary, the birth of a child, a personal achievement, a love story, or simply a moment when you want to honour yourself. People instinctively mark the most important chapters of their lives with objects that endure, and jewellery has always fulfilled that role.

Hanut, however, makes a clear distinction between jewellery purchased as an investment and pieces steeped in sentimental value: “An heirloom isn’t defined by its monetary value; it’s defined by the memories and emotions attached to it. For one family, it might be an extraordinary suite of diamonds. For another, it could be a single pearl, or a simple gold ring.” 

Hanut’s work, he emphasises, has never really been about creating investment assets. It’s about designing pieces with which people will form deep relationships — pieces they’ll wear, treasure, celebrate with, and hopefully, one day pass on. 

“That’s where their true value lies. So, while a jewel may appreciate in value over time, I think its greatest value comes from the memories it accumulates.” 

Jewellery has accompanied humanity for thousands of years. It has marked love, loss, triumph, devotion, identity, and celebration. This status quo, he believes, won’t ever change. 

However, as someone as firmly embedded in joaillerie as his inlaid gemstones are in precious metals, Hanut hopes to see the territory move away from being perceived as something purely transactional to something deeply personal. 

“The most beautiful jewels aren’t necessarily the most expensive ones — they’re the ones that have absorbed a life. As designers, our responsibility is simply to create pieces with honesty, integrity, and longevity. If we do that well, the jewellery will outlive us all. Its meaning will continue to evolve with every generation that wears it. That’s the real magic of jewellery — it doesn’t end with the designer. It begins a new life with every person who makes it their own.”