Hind Matar
Hi-tech and enchanting, Hind Matar’s futuristic jewelry collection proves that sustainable luxury is not just a dream.
It’s not often that a piece of jewelry captures the entire world. Ancient Japanese techniques, South American materials, natural pearls from Bahrain, and Indian ebony all mingle comfortably in Hind Matar’s pieces. Perhaps unsurprising for a globetrotter like MATAR, hers is an aesthetic that is focused firmly on the future – albeit an otherworldly one. Yet the unique design language she is developing seems to be rooted in lavish visions and daydreams of the past. Clear- ly, the young Bahraini’s story is as eclectic and multifaceted as the places from which she draws inspiration. Following the warm international reception of her eponymous fashion brand, she was approached to lend her hand to architecture and interiors projects and chose to collaborate with Tech Noir Lab, a pioneer in wearable technology, on her first full-range fine jewelry collection, launching next season. MATAR is currently preparing to debut a capsule collection featuring fine tagua nut. The collection, called Futuristic Antiquities, pays tribute to the artistic enigma of ancient civilizations such as the tempered use of shakudo, a centuries-old Japa- nese metal coloring technique for inlays. It also gives a nod to the designer’s own rich and vibrant heritage. For several generations, the MATAR family have been leading natural pearl merchants in the Middle East, supplying many of the finest jewelers around the world, including Cartier. But it is MATAR’s eye for innovation and her bold choice of sustain- able, humanitarian materials that makes her jewelry so rele- vant now. To use the tagua nut as the main material for a fine jewelry collection not only updates our definition of luxury, it also contributes to the growing movement toward a more responsible approach to luxury. The result is a series of edgy, one-of-a-kind jewelry sculptures that let the raw merge with the regal, the ancient with the modern, and bring together un- usual colors and material combinations from natural pearls, gold and silver to shakudo and, above all, tagua. “We can’t all be reborn as a completely sustainable brand overnight but we can all be mindful of where we want to end up and make conscious decisions along the way that help us get that little bit closer to a better, cleaner, fairer world,” says Hind Matar, who sees the tagua nut as the ideal alternative to ivory. “And some of those decisions don’t even have to be a compromise.”