Jeweller reveals she was inspired to make £300 ‘knuckleduster’ rings after being stalked

A jewellery designer has revealed how the glamorous over-sized cocktail rings she creates were influenced by her own experience of being harassed for four years by a man she didn’t want to date.

Hannah Mossman Moore’s ‘knuckleduster’ rings, which start from around £300 and she sells under the brand Jean London, have gained a celebrity following with the likes of Adele, Rihanna and Fearne Cotton all fans. 

However, the bold rings have a more serious undertone and the British jeweller, 29, told The Sunday Times, that they represent ‘jewellery as armour’ for women, saying her own trauma at being stalked changed the way she designs.

The reimagined versions of the cocktail ring, which became prominent in society in the 1920s, features a thicker band, chunky settings and large, colourful  semi-precious stones.

She told the Sunday newspaper that as a 25-year-old, she was harrassed and stalked by a wealthy man she met at an industry networking event. 

The Philosophy graduate said that her designs, once more delicate with smaller stones evolved into the ‘big rocks for powerful people’ that have become her trademark. 

She said: ‘My designs shifted to sort of big knuckledusters and powerful jewellery which you could kind of wear on you as armour. I actually started sleeping with them on because I felt more powerful wearing these huge rocks on my fingers.’ 

Reimagining the cocktail ring: The ‘knuckleduster’ rings retail from £300 and use large, ethically mined semi-precious stones in bold settings

Pictured: Fearne Cotton wearing Jean London designs; the brand was named after Mossman Moore’s late grandmother, Jean Mossman, who was a journalist

The semi-precious stones are all ethically sourced. A period living in Sri Lanka saw her influenced by a local mine owner, who ran female-run mines, where the workers would hold shares in the stones they mined.  

In a note on the Jean London website, she says she wanted to kick back against an industry that is far too often unethical and dominated by men, saying: ‘I came to understand the best – and the worst – aspects of the business. 

‘It’s a very male-dominated industry and many companies really don’t care about where their gemstones come from or how their jewellery is made.’ 

The Jean London website reveals that Mossman Moore named the jewellery after her late grandmother, Jean Mossman, a journalist, who the jeweller calls a ‘determined unconventionalist’ whose spirit ‘informs every aspect of the brand’.