Photo courtesy of AYA

"I’m making myself sound like Mowgli,” giggles the fun and funny Zimbabwe-born beauty Chelsy Davy as she describes her “innocent, idyllic childhood” running around barefoot surrounded by wildlife such as monkeys and elephants. “As a kid you don’t realise how cool these things are but, looking back, it was pretty insane—my house and school were about 200 metres from Victoria Falls.”

The qualified lawyer—perhaps most famous for her on-off relationship with Prince Harry from 2004 to 2011—left her beloved motherland to attend Stowe School in England before returning to study law at the University of Cape Town. She moved back to the UK for further study at Leeds and then to train as a solicitor at Allen & Overy in London. “I always wanted to be a lawyer from when I was really young. It was something I wanted to accomplish, a set of tools I wanted to gain.” However, in 2014, having qualified, Davy decided the legal profession was not her calling (“I was never interested in making partner”), so she quit the firm and began looking for opportunities that would enable her to return home. “I wanted to do something that would take me back to Africa.”

The eureka moment came while she was visiting her brother at his home in Lusaka, Zambia, when one of his friends gave his girlfriend a piece of jewellery sparkling with Zambian emeralds. “The colour of the emeralds was just amazing; I was blown away,” enthuses Chelsy. She was so inspired that she began researching the region’s gemstones. The more she learned, the more fascinated she became, and soon she enrolled to study coloured gemstones at the Gemological Institute of America. “I had to spend two months in a lab in order to complete the course, which was fully intense but so cool. You have to learn to identify 500 different stones. I’m quite a geek, though, so I loved it.”

The Zambezi Collection by Aya; Photos courtesy of Aya

Chelsy, who has always loved jewellery and remembers playing with her grandmother’s necklaces when she was very young, identified a gap in the market for a truly luxury African jewellery brand. “I don’t think there are many out there. I wanted it to be from Africa and made in Africa, but still high end. I knew I wanted my stones to be AAA and my gold to be 18-karat gold, whatever the extra cost.” And with these goals, Aya was born, named for the fern motif in West Africa’s Adinkra symbols, in which the fern symbolises endurance and resourcefulness. “Ferns can grow in difficult circumstances and it’s the same with gemstones,” says Chelsy. “They form over millions and millions of years in very difficult geological conditions. It’s also just a really pretty name.”

The Zambezi Collection, the brand’s first, is a wearable and versatile assortment of pendants, bangles, bracelets, earrings and rings in 18K yellow gold set with colourful gemstones. It is available in Hong Kong exclusively through Plukka. “I wanted to create jewellery that could be dressed up or dressed down and be worn by any woman,” says Chelsy, who sources her emeralds from Zambia, rubies from Mozambique and tanzanite from Tanzania. To be sure of the African origins of her emeralds and rubies, she works directly with mine owner Gemfields, which ensures every gem is ethically sourced, responsibly mined and is traceable from mine to market.

Chelsy’s collection is colourful—“there are so many diamonds around, I think colour is beautiful and unique”—and the shape of elephant tusks is a signature theme. “Elephant tusks symbolise Africa and its natural beauty,” says Chelsy, who designed the collection in her family’s Zimbabwe home, which is “constantly surrounded by elephants.”

"I wanted my brand to be from Africa and made in Africa, but still high end. I wanted my stones to be AAA and my gold to be 18-karat, whatever the extra cost."

Aside from producing beautiful jewellery, Aya takes the concept of social responsibility seriously and is currently building a classroom block for the Kapila Community School in Zambia’s Kafubu emerald mining area. “I believe education is key for a community to progress,” says Chelsy, “so we are committed to improving the accessibility and quality of education in the communities that we work with. It’s something we are really proud of and will always do.”

Animated and engaging, with a wonderfully contagious cackle that had us in fits of giggles for half the interview, Chelsy is excited and passionate about Aya. “I want to create something beautiful, unique and authentically African that is socially responsible and worn and loved by people.” And she has.