The company has gone from a one-woman show to a team of nine, overseeing retail partnerships in Singapore, France, and the UK and US markets. In 2013, the brand had a necklace auctioned by Sotheby’s Asia for more than double its reserve price.

Chinese porcelain sits at the core of Simone Jewels’ 2022 collection, Portraits of Porcelain, through which the brand seeks to turn “the exquisiteness of porcelain and the techniques of its unsung masters into profoundly wearable tributes”.

The pieces were inspired by three Chinese porcelain pieces from the Qing dynasty: a Yangcai porcelain vase; a reticulated Yangcai vase, which sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for HK$70.4 million in July 2020, and was once housed at the Qianqing Palace (Palace of Heavenly Purity) in Beijing’s Forbidden City; and a set of 12 porcelain cups created for the Kangxi emperor in the 18th century.

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Each piece has inspired three lines within the larger collection: Paradise in Harmony, Heavenly Purity and Twelve Blossoms.

The first infuses motifs of spring flowers, deer and cranes into vibrant, geometrical designs, echoing the smooth curves and vivid colours of the original Yangcai vase.

Heavenly Purity draws from the secret strategies of the emperor’s inner court with intricate, lattice-like designs and square motifs that envelop hidden details. With a nod to the reticulated vase’s concealed, inner layer – cobalt blue with peach motifs – Ng reinterprets the masterpiece through an array of red and pink gemstones.

The Twelve Blossoms line uses intaglio and plique-à-jour enamel techniques in a delicate rendition of the hand-painted, floral designs of Emperor Kangxi’s 12 cups.

The brand’s designs pay homage to the cups’ floral imagery through white and blue gold pieces, with a range of blue gemstones: tanzanites, aquamarines and neon blue tourmalines.

Simone Jewels also runs a bespoke wedding service, Sincerely Simone, and sells trendier everyday pieces via Jouer by Simone. The latter uses e-commerce channels to engage with younger shoppers, who can choose from a range of styles and customisable designs at a more accessible price point.

In 17 years, the brand has gone from a small, home-grown label cultivating its clientele through private events and appointments to the first headed by a Singaporean designer to be showcased at London’s Harrods department store, in 2020.

When the brand went global in 2020, requests on behalf of celebrities started rolling in. Pieces from all three of Simone’s collections have adorned ensembles worn by stars including singers Taylor Swift and Janelle Monáe and actresses Emily Blunt and Li Jun Li.

The interest – a blessing, Ng tells the Post – has largely been organic.

All the while, star power hasn’t taken Ng’s eyes off local customers: she adopted a multibrand strategy to adapt to Singapore’s relatively small high-jewellery market, citing brand and product differentiation as key.

The balancing act has certainly paid off: besides being named Singapore’s best luxury jewellery brand in 2016, in 2019 Ng was presented with The Pulsar Award at Singapore’s annual Women Entrepreneur Awards for her entrepreneurial prowess.

The journey has not been an easy one. Ng continues to juggle the demands of being chief designer and CEO with being a mother, wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law.

“The ability to multitask and be disciplined was key to get everything done,” she says.

Beyond establishing trust with customers and wholesale partners, Ng had to prove herself as a female CEO: many female founders are starting their own jewellery brands in Singapore but much of the industry was led by men during the brand’s early years, she recalls.

For Ng, Simone Jewels’ Harrods debut – a pop-up from September to November 2020 curated by The House of Luxury – marked a milestone. Today, the brand’s designs form part of the House of Luxury’s permanent collection at its boutique in London’s Mayfair, but it also counts an e-commerce partnership with Farfetch among its multiple sales channels and stockists.

Ng’s eyes are on further global expansion. Simone Jewels is now one of many brands tapping markets outside Europe and America, and making a case for a less Eurocentric high jewellery market.

“Every region has their own version of jewellery, where style, materials and meaning vary,” says Ng.

Growing with the particularities of each market and generation is a challenge Simone Jewels will tackle head-on.

Although it may be a niche business, the brand’s offering – unique heirloom pieces that reflect an individual wearer’s personality and style – speaks to many.

“Designing wearable art and ensuring we have the wearer in mind is very important,” Ng says. “The jewellery should never wear the person, it should always be the other way around.”