There are few things that the Esquire desk loves more than emerging regional talent, but add in designs that don’t only look good, but do good, too, and you’ve got a pretty sure-fire formula to get our ears pricked. Meet Aqwaa, the Middle Eastern brand that designs jewellery with a message.
By name, AQWAA stands for ‘stronger’ in Arabic, and by message it encourages us to do the same – creating jewellery that not only sparks the often rare-in-the-region conversation around mental health, but also gives a portion of its profits to charities that do the same, including grassroots mental health organisation NAMI and UK charity Mental Health Foundation.
While we think any support of mental health is reason enough to start clicking add-to-basket, the jewellery designs themselves live up to a gold-standard of their own.
The operational switch on the brands signature gold dog tag, slides between the arabic words for on and off – a reminder it’s ok to not always be ok – while the more literal fist pendent sees the words ‘stigma’ engraved up its raised middle-finger.
The designs come in white or yellow gold and donate 10% of proceeds to one of the aforementioned mental health charities.
They’re also unisex – so whether you’re treating yourself (and so you should) or looking for a token of solidarity to reach out to a loved one with, we’re putting our stake in the ground and nudging you towards AQWAA.
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