Qatar's YoC commissions Mimia Leblanc Jewellery

Qatar’s Years of Culture (YoC) initiative has commissioned internationally recognised jewellery designer Miryam Labiad, founder of Mimia LeBlanc Jewellery, to design a bespoke collection to celebrate the Qatar-Morocco 2024 Year of Culture.

In designing the pieces, Labiad took inspiration from Amazigh (known as Berber in English) jewellery made by the indigenous populations of the Maghreb region of North Africa, as well as Andalusian influences, a statement said Wednesday.

The collection will be unveiled at the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize Ceremony in Marrakesh on October 24 and featured at Qatar Museums’ Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) alongside the exhibition, Splendours of the Atlas: A Voyage Through Morocco’s Heritage, on view from November 2, 2024 to March 8, 2025.

The first piece in the collection is a statement pendant with natural lapis, grey diamonds, cabochon rubies, and a mother-of-pearl inlay, which draws inspiration from Morocco’s Royal Silver Jewellery Collection which was featured at MIA earlier this year as part of the Qatar – Morocco’s opening exhibition.

Another borrows from the Amazigh tradition of using coins as adornment and makes use of a rare Moroccan coin depicting his late Majesty Mohamed V, the grandfather of the current King Mohammed VI.

The third piece resembles an ancient Moroccan necklace, a serdouk, a phoenix with rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and white mother of pearl, set in frosted yellow gold.

In a statement, Miryam Labiad said: “It has been an enormous honour to spend time with peerless examples of Amazigh and traditional Moroccan jewellery and to be inspired by them to design these one-of-a-kind pieces that revel in the rich history of Moroccan jewelry-making. I look forward to seeing my works displayed among the objects that inspired them.”

The YoC initiative spearheads sustained cultural partnerships between Qatar and other nations. It exists to promote respect and understanding among diverse cultures and serves as a catalyst for bringing people together, the statement added.