Kiala Kanzi officially launched her eponymous jewellery brand in February 2019, but her love for crafting dates way back. “I’ve always been creative,” she says. “I started with tailoring, shoemaking and product design, and then I realised I was actually into small things.” Currently based in Barcelona, Kanzi has been building up her portfolio for the past four years, all the while studying jewellery and object design. And as her work reveals, it’s obvious that despite her minimalist aesthetic, Kiala Kanzi is about offering the heirlooms of tomorrow.

This ambition stems from Kanzi’s memories of being fascinated by her grandmother’s gold jewellery as a child, which is when she realised the inherent power of the accessory. “It’s not something you need; it’s something you decide to wear because you want to.” So she’s now committed to translating stories into exquisite keepables. Whether it’s a pair of statement earrings, a signet ring or a chain necklace, there is always history behind the design, which relates back to her personal journey as a German-Cameroonian-Syrian designer. “So many things have been insensibly appropriated and commercialised,” she reflects. “It’s only natural that I want to express who I am and reclaim my identity through my work.”

Which is why this fresh talent’s designs are made by hand and then lovingly gold-plated. “There’s a radiating element to the pieces, they bring a soothing light,” she says, adding that it’s important that her approach to design remains unforced and experimental: “You can just go with the flow and come up with a different shape as you’re creating the piece.” Her growing love for one-of-a-kind pieces has also led her to start developing a bespoke line, which has already caught the attention of British musician Jorja Smith, and the incredible anaïs, who had both the designer and her jewellery star in the music video for “Woman”.

For the designer’s latest campaign, Forever Untitled, she enlisted Barcelona-based photographer and director Alexandra Cepeda to shoot a story and short film. Bathed in golden light with swathes of softly flowing fabrics tenting the space, Kanzi has created a dreamy haven for her protagonists, who are transported to an almost childlike state. It’s soothing, poetic and dreamlike. “Welcome to my cosmos,” she says of this lyrical place where, “every piece of jewellery is like a little star.”

Speaking to Kanzi, it’s clear that her versatility pushes her to continuously test different directions and go beyond the simply pretty. “The names of my pieces are inspired by spirituality and the cosmos to reflect the idea of searching for meaning in life,” she reveals. This explains why she refers to her approach as “complex simplicity” because, despite the wearability of her jewellery, there are multiple beautiful facets to her brand. For example, each design comes accompanied by a poem exploring the messages behind it. As Kanzi says, “I don’t want to impose limits to what I can do.”

A version of this story originally appeared in issue two of Nataal magazine

Direction and Photography Alexandra Cepeda
Styling Rebeca Sueiro
Make-up Schamiram Ninos and Kiala Kanzi
Models Ibra Ceesay and Neï Bikoko

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Published on 17/06/2020