The Body Anissa Kermiche Lives in
“I started [my brand] eight years ago, it’s going to be 10 in two years. I better hurry up and do even bigger things,” says Anissa Kermiche sitting in bed on a Zoom call as a result of the London transport strikes, which were later canceled.
As the founder and core investor of her jewelry and interiors brand, she has the luxury of making the rules as she goes.
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The London-based designer has quickly made a name for herself with the success of her jewelry, which has been inspired by the female form translated into gold, silver, diamonds and ceramics.
“I took summer classes at Central Saint Martins, just to try to see if the love I had for jewelry [was there], which I was quite ashamed of because I thought it was quite cliche,” says Kermiche, who trained as an engineer and later worked in logistics in Paris, her place of birth.
After completing the course, she went back to her day job to quit and moved to London to study 3D design, computer-aided design and 3D printing, while teaching math and French on the side to make ends meet.
“My first desire was to create pieces that I wanted to wear myself,” says Kermiche, whose first design was the corne de gazelle pearl earrings inspired by the crescent-shaped North African pastry filled with almond paste.
Her pieces began being spotted on the London subway and eventually word of mouth spread wide enough that she started making five to 10 pieces to sell.
She calls her pieces “conversation openers” that bring together her love for sculpture and the human form.
“My mom had a hard time adapting because she’s Algerian and quite a moderate Muslim. I’m an atheist, so we don’t get along on that side of things. She would always complain, ‘Why am I the only mom in the world who gave birth to a sexual jeweler? Why do you have to do naked designs?’” she says, laughing.
Kermiche’s decorative objects such as vases and candlesticks were being designed at the same time as her jewelry, but she admits it was harder to find a factory to make them and logistically, she was working from her apartment, which she used as an office for a few years. The jewelry was easier; she would ship hundreds of pieces to Net-a-porter and Matches.
Her homeware is made in Portugal and her jewelry production ranges from Europe to Asia, using China for pearls, Israel for diamonds and Turkey for gold-plated vermeil.
Prices for jewelry start at 75 pounds for a pair of tassel earrings and range up to 4,795 pounds; meanwhile, homeware starts from 65 pounds and ends at 735 pounds.
“I’m very price conscious. I’m trying my best to keep my margins really low so that it stays affordable for a woman with her own salary,” says Kermiche, listing demi-fine jewelry as her bestseller because they’re under 500 pounds but feature small precious stones.
“My audience is women who buy for themselves. It’s not men who will come for an occasion,” she adds.
The French Algerian designer has high ambitions — she wants to design lamps and furniture, as well as working with a hotel.
She’s working on designing chairs that will make their debut during Frieze in London in October and she just completed finishing her showroom that “looks more like a home.”
Kermiche says a majority of direct sales from her website come from the U.S., but when it comes to retailers, the buyers are “more cautious” of the pieces they pick from her catalog of provocative designs.
“I feel like it’s a bit like working with the Middle East in some way,” she adds.
There have been a few hiccups in the expansion of Anissa Kemriche into the States and China, however.
“We were with the wrong agent to develop the U.S., so I didn’t feel quite understood and there’s an exit clause that we’re not finished with yet,” says Kermiche, who plans to relaunch properly soon.
In China, she’s been facing IP battles, which she describes as “really exhausting and expensive.”
Her trademark has been stolen and she’s been trying to get it back for a while now.
When Kermiche started her brand, she only protected the jewelry category in China rather than homeware too.
“There’s many, one of them created a lingerie website, so it’s a bit triggering,” she says about venturing into the Chinese market until she’s cleared her name of products that she didn’t design.
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