Sophisticated and feminine, NOMIS’ 18k gold jewelry evokes a subtle fierceness and almost irreverent attitude towards traditional jewelry design, and it is intended to be both beautiful and empowering. Her ear pins resemble large sewing needles daringly piercing the ear at a slight angle. The same ear pin can seamlessly become a pendant that sensually skims the wearer’s decolletage. Made in two pieces, the brand’s most recent additions allow for mixing and matching of finishes and stones. While the brand offers made-to-order jewelry that utilizes mined diamonds and gemstones such as rubies, sapphires and emeralds, Alyona opts to work with lab grown stones, believing their ethical sustainability and the permanence of their composition transcend any antiquated allegiance to traditional jewelry materials.

Originally from Odessa, Alyona has lived in Paris and London but returned to Ukraine in 2019. In mid-2020, she launched NOMIS and in January of 2022, she opened her flagship NOMIS boutique in Kyiv’s bustling city center. As she explained in a piece for Vogue UK in March of 2022, she was on vacation with her family when Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. The invasion, and the incomprehensibility of the tragedies that continue to grip her native country, have only strengthened her resolve. Her work continues to flourish, and she is using her platform as a creative to raise awareness and money to support her fellow Ukrainians and her country.

While being of Ukrainian descent has always been a point of pride for the designer, she wrote, “We love Ukraine, but neither I nor any of my friends were especially patriotic before the war. We live there, we work, we pay taxes. Now? We are 100 per cent patriots.” Her jewelry is stunning in its own right and forges a unique niche among celebrated designer fine jewelry brands, and yet the current circumstances of Alyona and her team cannot be isolated from the brand narrative. Their lives, along with those of their fellow Ukrainians, have forever been altered. The value of beauty and innovation is only heightened amidst the devastation imposed upon an entire, sovereign nation. When viewed from that perspective, the bold defiance in NOMIS Jewelry’s avant-garde collections becomes a call to action, coupled with the belief that with perseverance and determination, anything is possible.