{"id":9458,"date":"2026-01-07T14:40:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/9458\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:40:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:40:34","slug":"messika-dedicates-its-20th-anniversary-collection-to-namibia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/9458\/","title":{"rendered":"Messika Dedicates Its 20th Anniversary Collection to Namibia"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re trudging through the Namib Desert. It\u2019s over 100 degrees. The landscape is split between dunes of ochre sand and vibrant blue sky. We\u2019ve come from Namibia\u2019s capital of Windhoek via a travel itinerary that required an initial car ride, an hour-long (small) plane ride, and then another car ride in an open vehicle that acquainted us with the heat of the desert via an attack of balmy wind. Now, we walk the final kilometer through the dunes\u2014no cars can come here. I\u2019m a little woozy as my foot placements become increasingly uneven in the fickle sand. We\u2019re marching toward Deadvlei, a petrified valley in the midst of the iron-stained red dunes of Namibia\u2019s Sossusvlei\u2014and I\u2019m slipping behind. (Did I mention this came after flying in from New York the day before?) Suddenly, Valerie Messika, founder and creative director of Messika Diamonds and the instigator of this trip, comes bounding out of the dunes. She\u2019s wearing a somehow still white tank top, khaki pants, and Alexander McQueen sneakers, and looks none the worse for the journey. Her wrist and neck glitter with a few diamonds, even here in the middle of the desert. One glance up from my personal trail and all ailments are forgotten; this place is absolutely incredible. <\/p>\n

\"dead\u00a9\ufe0f Ivan Jozepovic<\/p>\n

Namibia\u2019s Deadvlei<\/p>\n

The whole experience was quite extreme\u2014but then again, diamonds, the hardest substance on Earth, are extreme. \u201cA diamond is energy. It’s carbon,\u201d says Valerie. \u201cIt’s the most brilliant stone that you can find.\u201d Though she had visited before, the Messika Diamonds founder began her love affair with Namibia in earnest about three years ago. She wanted to see where her diamonds came from. She toured her father Andre Messika\u2019s diamond cutting workshop, took her kids on safari, and explored other wonders like the Namib desert. \u201cI completely fell in love with this country,\u201d says Valerie. Namibia\u2019s sparsely populated landscape is home to both the world\u2019s oldest desert and an array of unique wildlife. \u201cIt’s so different from the north to the south. I fell in love with the color, with the landscape, the animals, the people, the light.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"giraffe\u00a9\ufe0f Ivan Jozepovic<\/p>\n

A giraffe photographed on safari in Namibia<\/p>\n

The adventurer returned to her home in Paris with a camera roll full of images\u2014and budding inspiration for new pieces. When the time came to plan her 20th anniversary collection about two years ago, she wanted to pay tribute to the place her diamonds come from. Messika\u2019s Terres d\u2019Instinct high jewelry collection mimics the ripples of the dunes in a snake of brushed gold and pav\u00e9 diamonds, evokes the stripes of zebras in an alternating onyx and diamond pattern, and captures the essence of the night sky with a spray of sapphires and diamonds encircling a 3-carat pear-cut diamond. It draws on the stark minimalism of the landscape and its many wondrous interruptions.<\/p>\n

\"sunset\u00a9\ufe0f Ivan Jozepovic<\/p>\n

A Namibian sunset<\/p>\n

In the past 100 years, diamonds have become an intrinsic part of Namibia\u2019s development, but the desirable stones aren\u2019t mined in a traditional sense. Instead, these alluvial diamonds, as they\u2019re called, were carried via rivers over millions of years from their initial volcanic sources to deposits in riverbeds and ocean floors. (In this case, by the Orange River to the Atlantic Ocean.) Namibia\u2019s diamond \u201cmines\u201d vacuum up sand from the seabeds, from which they then extract the rough diamonds before returning the sand to its home. <\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

\u00a9\ufe0f Ivan Jozepovic<\/p>\n

This erosion ensures a certain survival of the fittest\u2014or of the highest clarity. Stones with many imperfections are simply crushed. The weathering process often yields only the most exceptional material acting as a quality filter, unlike traditional kimberlite mining, which produces higher amounts of lower quality materials. And thanks to alluvial diamonds\u2019 round shapes courtesy of their ocean tumble, less material is lost in the cutting process. <\/p>\n

\"worker\u00a9\ufe0f Ivan Jozepovic<\/p>\n

An employee at the Andr\u00e9 Messika Diamond cutting workshop cuts a diamond<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Messika is strong, it’s because we are diamond experts. The diamonds come from this part of the world,\u201d says Valerie, \u201cand I wanted to pay tribute.\u201d Their rough diamonds go first to the Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC), a joint venture between the Namibian government and the De Beers Group, before arriving at the Andre Messika Diamonds cutting workshop. Once deemed perfect by in-house gemologists and Sarine, a new, universal technology that verifies quality via digital scans, the diamonds are finally routed through the Gemological Institute of America in New York for quality assurance before finally coming back to Messika Diamonds to be put into jewelry. <\/p>\n

\"jewelry\u00a9 Pierre Verez<\/p>\n

The “Hypnotic” necklace made of pink sapphires from Messika’s Terres d\u2019Instinct collection<\/p>\n

Here at the Andre Messika factory, Valerie is bobbing around, speaking to everyone, asking questions about the day-to-day, and showing workers the jewelry their work helps to shape. Of the cutting factory\u2019s employees, with near-gender parity and almost half qualifying as disabled. Employees also hold 25% of the company\u2019s shares. (The Namibian government requires 15 percent of sourced diamonds remain in the country, ensuring that most Namibian diamonds are cut locally and subject to strict control and regulation.) \u201cWhile you understand all the steps, it’s so different to see them,\u201d Valerie reflects of the care that goes into each piece. Then, on a broader scale, \u201cyou understand that when you look at this piece of jewelry, there are a thousand years of history that you’re wearing.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"clear\u00a9\ufe0f Ivan Jozepovic<\/p>\n

A raw diamond before it has been cut and polished<\/p>\n

Valerie grew up in Paris surrounded by diamonds. Her father founded the diamond trading company Andre Messika Ltd. in 1972. Her goal with Messika Diamonds, launched in 2005, was to make these beautiful diamonds into jewelry that felt more casual, more accessible\u2014or as accessible as can be. She wanted diamond jewelry that felt like fashion and luxury, at the same time. The brand now has stores in Paris, London, Dubai, and even one that opened in New York last year. Its designs have been worn by Beyonc\u00e9, Rihanna, Gigi Hadid, and more. <\/p>\n

\"display\u00a9 Pierre Verez<\/p>\n

The “Mille Feux” necklace made from tsavorite garnets from Messika’s Terres d\u2019Instinct collection<\/p>\n

This latest collection, a \u201cnew chapter\u201d for the brand, is a culmination of Valerie\u2019s current desires and those she\u2019s harbored since the beginning. It\u2019s the first time Messika has used color. It appears in the tsavorite garnets of the \u201cMille Feux necklace,\u201d the vivid green set against diamonds in a repetition of squares, and the pink sapphires and spessartite garnets, which embody the shades of a desert sunset in gradient teardrop strands. Her pieces are both hard and soft, inspired by Namibia\u2019s paradoxical raw beauty. They parallel her casual approach to diamonds: \u201cI love that diamonds can be worn with jeans. I love those kinds of contrast. That’s why this land speaks to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re trudging through the Namib Desert. It\u2019s over 100 degrees. The landscape is split between dunes of ochre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[6528,6532,6530,6529,102,6531],"class_list":{"0":"post-9458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-namibia","8":"tag-content-type-feature","9":"tag-contentid-a58cea3a-56b1-4b7c-9712-c898efd73b5f","10":"tag-displaytype-long-form-article","11":"tag-locale-us","12":"tag-namibia","13":"tag-shorttitle-messika-honors-the-land-that-produces-its-diamonds"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}