Photo: Courtesy of Maveroc
There’s a new homegrown brand to love and support in the UAE, and it is aiming to breathe fresh air into the fine jewelry industry. Founded by couple Rita Chraibi and Ibrahim Lamrini, Maveroc is a Dubai-based label with Moroccan roots owing to their heritage, and has launched its e-commerce platform on October 10.
Rita Chraibi and Ibrahim Lamrini. Photo: Courtesy of Maveroc
The brand prides itself on its fine jewelry pieces that can be “stacked, flipped, mixed, and matched to suit every mood,” while combining Lamrini’s love for sophisticated mechanisms with Chraibi’s eye for design and color. As creative director, she oversees the production of the pieces right here in the UAE by skilled artisans who use both traditional and modern techniques to bring the couple’s vision of individuality to life.
Photo: Courtesy of Maveroc
Believing that fine jewelry as a medium for self-expression should be more accessible, Maveroc features 18k gold, high-quality diamonds, AAA-graded precious stones, and a rainbow of semi-precious stones in its pieces that are easily available. “We are a digital-first jewelry brand,” says Lamrini. “The convenience of an e-commerce platform means we can be more responsive, really elevate the customer experience and address consumer behaviors that have evolved significantly over the last few years.” Chraibi adds, “We design and create with the intention to encourage, inspire and celebrate individuality. Our jewelry designs allow people to choose a piece that resonates with their story.”
Below, find out more about Maveroc, its designs, and future from the founders themselves.
Photo: Courtesy of Maveroc
What is the idea behind Maveroc, both the name and the brand?
The idea behind Maveroc is to bring a fresh perspective to the jewelry market and give consumers the option to purchase quality, genuine fine jewelry outside of big brand names, niche designers, and brick-and-mortar stores.
We want to do things differently. We feel the jewelry market has been stuck for a long time in a relatively traditional mindset, in (i) the way the jewelry is designed, which is according to a relatively narrow set of unwritten rules, in (ii) the way the jewelry is sold to the consumer, through luxury but somewhat uncomfortable retail settings and in (iii) the way new collections are released–rarely.
We think consumer behaviors have evolved significantly over the years and our aim is to address these changes, which means: (i) breaking the unwritten rules of jewelry design—we bring sophisticated mechanisms to jewelry, a lot of colors through enameling—the application of a glass colored paste to the gold—and we use a very large variety of precious and semi-precious stones in special cuts and settings, (ii) a top-notch online experience bringing convenience and speed in addressing consumers questions—we deliver in two hours in Dubai and next day in other Emirates and internationally and (iii) frequent new product drops—instead of releasing one or two collections per year, we have new original designs being released every month.
The name Maveroc really means all of this, it is a combination of the words ‘maverick’, meaning doing things in an unorthodox manner, and ‘rock’, and it is also a nod to our country of origin, spelled Maroc in French.
Photo: Courtesy of Maveroc
What makes stackable jewelry so special?
Jewelry stacking is one of the ways in which we give life to our mantra, ‘Wear Your Story’. As humans, we are all multi-faceted. We have different characteristics we can dial up or down, depending on our mood. In creating Maveroc, we wanted to capture and celebrate our many ‘selves’. Most pieces can be stacked and worn in different ways to express different styles; some also have sophisticated mechanisms that can be used to reveal—or hide—an engraved message. People are not one-dimensional, nor should jewelry be. The multiple looks that can be achieved by individual Maveroc pieces are symbolic of what it means to be human: everyone has their own stories to tell.
Photo: Courtesy of Maveroc
What is the inspiration behind Maveroc’s designs?
All of our jewelry pieces are imagined and created by Rita, who draws her inspiration from her own personal experiences. Having spent extended periods of time traveling, Rita draws on her inspiration from across the globe when creating our collections. Her passion for color, symbolism, and special-cut gems hails from her time spent living in Morocco, Mexico, and Peru. Her love of art and geometric shapes comes from Paris, where she studied, a city steeped in eclectic beauty. In particular, Rita fell in love with David LaChapelle and Robert Delaunay who greatly inspire her designs and their beauty – both colorful and unexpected. On his side, with a keen fascination with clever engineering, Ibrahim is responsible for the sophisticated mechanisms found in some of the Maveroc pieces, such as the Dial-up collection, featuring a rotating half dial that can smoothly turn to reveal a secret message.
Photo: Courtesy of Maveroc
How do you envision your pieces being worn?
We want our pieces to be worn all the time! When designing our pieces, one of the central ideas is to make sure that they can be worn in any setting, be it formal or casual, for an effortlessly chic style. For example, our Whatever hoop earrings are double-sided and can be flipped for a completely different look—diamonds on one side and flashy pink enamel on the other, stacked in one ear for an edgier look with more piercings or chained to one another for a classier drop look.
Photo: Courtesy of Maveroc
Why is it important to create the pieces locally?
Being a UAE-born brand is very dear to our hearts. We moved to Dubai a few days after getting married in 2020. We had our children here and we grew in our careers and in our life in general. We see the UAE as our home, a country that has given us so much and which is part of who we are today, so it was very important for us to have the full process be local, from design to manufacturing to customer service.
Moreover, for a long time the Dubai jewelry market, in addition to being a large trading platform, was mainly focused on manufacturing. Over the last few years, we started seeing more and more UAE-born brands that in addition to manufacturing also design very unique pieces that really stand out even when compared to large established international brands. We feel there is incredible talent in the UAE and in the region as a whole and that it is time to change the perception of this market. We think we will soon see the emergence of jewelry brands from the region that will become prominent and will grow internationally, and we want to be part of that.
Photo: Courtesy of Maveroc
What’s next for the brand?
We have just launched, so for now our goal is to establish the brand in our base, the UAE, and in neighboring GCC markets. We want to do that not only through marketing but also through very frequent pop-up events which are the opportunity for us to meet and get to know our clients and hear from them. We see tremendous growth in the industry and especially for online jewelry, and so in the medium term, our goal is to expand internationally in large markets such as the UK and the US. From a manufacturing standpoint, while we now manufacture through local partners, we have just opened our own manufacturing facility in Dubai and our goal is to shift the manufacturing in-house over the next few months, which will give us greater control and flexibility over the whole process and enable us to release new designs even more frequently.
Read Next: Opal: 30 Dazzling Jewelry Pieces for Those Who Love the October Birthstone
