In this personal essay, Lebanese jewelry designer Nada Ghazal reflects on creating her Whispers of Joy collection amidst war, loss, and uncertainty. Revealing how returning to creativity became an act of healing and a conscious choice to embrace joy.
I've always translated my feelings, sensations, and stories into elegant jewelry. But there's never a scheduled moment where I sit down to design a collection. It happens in between everything else, while I'm working, moving, talking, living. I write as feelings overwhelm me and design whatever complements my words. I shape little ideas in clay in the middle of a meeting, almost as if catching a feeling before it disappears. It's not a separate time or space, but part of the flow of the day. And when it's time to create a collection, I gather all my notes and papers. I shape the theme, finalize the drawings, and begin production. That's when I return, refine, and complete what I initially only felt fleetingly.
The beginning of 2026 was light and joyful for me. There was a shift from 2025, which had felt heavier as I was still carrying things I was processing from before. I started expressing what I felt on paper through words and sketches. My lines were light, fluid, almost effortless. There was a sense of joy within them. At that moment, I thought about creating a collection titled «Joy».
Then March came, the war started again in Lebanon, and everything changed. Although I was in London, part of my heart belongs to Lebanon. And when Lebanon hurts, I hurt too.
My sketches started to change. The lines that were light began to lose their ease. They became heavier, more reserved, less confident. In April, we lost two family members to the war. I didn't have time to grieve; life had to go on with its deadlines and demands. In May I had my biggest show of the year in Las Vegas, so I had to keep going.
There's always a strange silence in moments like these. When your life asks you to stand before the eyes of the world, visible and present. While internally, you hold a sorrow that isn't clear where to go. Usually, at this stage of the process, I'm in my studio in Beirut, turning sketches into 3D forms. So that I can feel them, test them, and perfect them before the final process.
This time, I wasn't there due to the war. So I sent all my plans to Beirut and asked the team to proceed with the casting. Fearing a result I couldn't fully feel, I made the decision to go to Beirut on May 2nd. Three weeks before my main event, for which I still had so much to prepare.
As soon as I arrived at the studio, I had a moment of clarity. I looked at my unfinished work and immediately understood that I needed to change course. I made a conscious decision to bring joy back into my life and weave it into my work. Thus, creating a collection that exudes joy, vibrancy, and dynamism. I returned to the initial trail of February, to the first instinct, to the first lightness, to the first whisper of an idea before everything else entered the process. With this return, the process itself became healing. It allowed me to reconnect with myself through the creative act.
For two weeks, day and night in Beirut, we worked instinctually, quickly moving from drawing to creation and refinement. It felt less like invention and more like reclaiming a language I'd temporarily lost. In that space, I felt joy again. In that process, I understood something more clearly than before.
That emotions are visitors, that joy is a fleeting moment, that it comes in fragments like everything else, and that sometimes we have to invite it back into our lives.
Thus, the «Whispers of Joy» collection was born. From joy. «Whispers of Joy» was born from a belief I hold deep within me: that even in uncertain times, we can still choose to create, to imagine, and to invite moments of light into our lives. And I hope that everyone who chooses to wear it will feel joy in their own way.
Source: www.vogue.me
