Rooted in the belief that luxury can be sought in simplicity, co-founders Aakriti Tapuriah and Rashi Sanghvi’s creative vision took form in the April of 2018 with a nuanced roster of designs supplemented with meticulous craftsmanship. 

Having completed her MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College in the USA, Rashi returned to her homeland and launched a specialty tea brand for the discerning tea lovers of today. Aakriti graduated with a Master’s degree in NGOs and Development from the London School of Economics in UK, and devoted six years of her life working with NGOs in the education and scholarship sector in India. Hailing from a family of jewellers, Aakriti is now carrying the family legacy forward by applying her savoir-faire to set up the manufacturing and quality control departments. Rashi, meanwhile, employs her learnings in consumer behaviour, digital marketing and e-commerce to introduce everyday luxury to the younger generation of jewellery buyers.

How did STAC Fine Jewellery begin?

STAC was born out of our own desire to find jewellery that was delicate, versatile and easy to wear. Most of the jewellery we owned was heavy, kept in our bank lockers and taken out only for special occasions. We realized that this was the case with most girls in our generation and it was ironically a challenge to find simple jewellery in 18 kt gold that we could wear everyday. Our frustration with the lack of this simplicity in the fine jewellery we owned made us think of STAC which focuses on fine jewellery that can be worn every day, that the modern girl feels proud to own, and that doesn’t break the bank!

From where do you draw inspiration for your designs?

At STAC, all the designs we create give the feeling of luxury without compromising on the minimalism of each piece. Initially, our inspiration came from our personal styles centred around a minimalistic aesthetic. Things that we would love to own but could never find. Fine jewellery has always been and will continue to be an emotion- driven purchase and the design process for us is no different. Every STAC collection has a story to tell and is associated with certain emotions that resonate with us and our customers and the design is often inspired by these emotions. As time has gone by and we’ve come to understand our customers, we have married our initial design process with data and feedback that we continuously get from our customers and one part of our inspiration now comes from a combination of talking to customers while keeping simplicity at our core.

Can you recall a particular moment with a client that will stay with you forever?

Given that jewellery is such a high involvement and personal purchase, our customers give us the great honour of a peek into their personal and most vulnerable moments. We had one instance when someone wanted to buy a piece for herself as a gift for making it through a difficult time in her life. Another one where a dear customer bought a piece from the evil eye collection and dropped us a message telling us since she started wearing the bracelet, she was having the best day ever! Such positive energy and love drives us to keep pushing forward as a brand and deliver amazing products and experiences everyday!

How do you want someone to feel when they wear STAC Fine Jewellery?

The first emotion that comes to mind is definitely pride followed by a feeling of enjoying the simple pleasures of life. We want the STAC woman to feel a sense of pride that she is wearing a piece of jewellery, which was created keeping her in mind and is crafted with high quality materials like 18 kt gold, specially selected diamonds and even emeralds! Taking that thought forward, we want her to feel like buying a STAC piece and putting it on everyday is something that she is doing for herself. While various things scream for her attention in the day, STAC is a little luxury that she is indulging in for herself.

If you hadn’t become a jewellery designer, what would you be doing?

Aakriti – “Probably continued my career in social development, more specifically in the field of education and helping to give women opportunities to have a more independent voice.”

Rashi- “Probably another digitally driven business focussed on high quality products that brings little joys to people’s lives everyday”

What are your favourite parts about being a jewellery designer?

Aakriti says “Has to be seeing a design come to life!”

Rashi says “That feeling of when a customer connects with a product and feels exactly how you felt when you were designing it.”

What is the hardest part about being a jewellery designer?

When a design you love doesn’t really resonate with the audience and consequently doesn’t give you the expected sales. But honestly it’s all a learning experience and in fact there’s so much more about our customers that we take away from things that don’t work.

If you could only wear one piece from your collection, what would it be and why?

That’s too tough! But our current favourite is everything from our newly launched horse shoe collection inspired by the good luck charm that is the Horseshoe. It also doesn’t hurt to keep a little good luck on us, especially in the current times we live in.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Listen, listen and listen some more. There is no substitute for first hand customer feedback

Where is STAC Fine Jewellery in the next 5 years?

In the next 5 years, we hope to reach a lot more women and become the brand of choice for all those women out there who have a minimalist aesthetic and are on the look-out for a brand that lends an air of practicality and class to fine jewellery. Our goal is really to become the plain white tee of your jewellery box.

On a detailed note, we look to establish our international presence and also dip our toes into physical retail but in a manner that looks nothing like traditional jewellery retail today. Our goal is to leverage technology and systems to use our physical spaces to create experiences for our customers that help them connect with the brand. All this while continuing to churn out high-quality, jewellery essentials for the modern woman that she can enjoy wearing every single day and keep forever!