We Have Our Eyes on Saudi Jewellery Brand HEROBJECTS

We love a big necklace at JDEED. Even better when the thing hanging from it has a story. Our latest discovery is HEROBJECTS, the Saudi jewellery brand founded by Nouf Musallam, where chunky 18k gold objects meet freshwater pearls and colourful woven cords, with much of the inspiration coming from the landscapes and little details of Saudi Arabia that Musallam grew up around.

And before you ask, the name is a play on words. HEROBJECTS comes from her hero objects, pronounced her objects, and sums up Musallam's approach quite nicely. She thinks about jewellery as both something you wear and an object in itself: sculptural, tactile and personal.

At the centre of everything is the HERO object, cast in solid 18k gold. It appears throughout the collection, but how you wear it is really up to you.

It Started With Home

Musallam grew up in Jeddah, and HEROBJECTS feels like a collection of things she has noticed and remembered along the way. There are the desert and wadis, but also shells collected along the Red Sea, the marks left by sand and water, and the way light changes a surface. Elsewhere, you find references to dunes, flora and landscapes seen from above.

One of our favourite references is the pomegranate seed, a form associated with beauty and abundance in Arabic culture. Spirals and curves keep appearing too, giving the jewellery a softness despite the weight of the gold.

It doesn't scream Saudi heritage at you, though, and that's precisely why it works. The references are there if you want to look for them, but otherwise these are simply really good objects to wear.

Before HEROBJECTS, Musallam worked in fashion, styling and editorial, contributing to Vogue Arabia, ELLE and Harper's Bazaar Arabia. Later, she began hosting pop-ups from her studio, sharing designers and pieces she loved and paying attention to how people actually styled them.  

You can feel that stylist's eye in HEROBJECTS because the jewellery invites you to play with it.

The components are interchangeable. A HERO pendant can hang from pearls one day and a woven cord the next. Wear it alone and it feels cleaner; add pearls and suddenly it's softer and a little more dressed up. Stack several pieces and you've got the kind of necklace situation we would happily build an entire outfit around. The smaller Mini pieces sit closer to the neck for days when you're feeling slightly less maximalist.

Perhaps our favourite thing about HEROBJECTS is that everything feels slightly imperfect in the best possible way.

The collection is full of rounded shapes, softened edges and surfaces inspired by things that have been changed by time: wind moving across sand, clay drying beneath the Saudi heat and stone slowly being worn smooth. Shells and seeds sit alongside cleaner references to contemporary architecture.

And that's where HEROBJECTS feels particularly current. There is a new generation of designers across the region looking at heritage without feeling the need to reproduce it literally. Musallam doesn't need to put a recognisable Saudi landmark around your neck to tell you where she's from. Sometimes a curve, a texture or the shape of something you once picked up beside the Red Sea says much more.

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