Missoma Brand Guidelines: London Demi-Fine Jewellery From a Kitchen Table

Beads, a mother, a sister and a gap in the market.

Missoma is a London jewellery brand founded by Marisa Hordern. Its start date comes in two versions. The company calls itself “the pioneers of demi-fine jewellery since 2007,” while Febe in April 2022 and TheIndustry.fashion in December 2024 give 2008. Companies House shows the present company, Missoma Limited, incorporated in January 2011.

The origin story is told in much the same way across Hordern’s interviews. She told Marie Claire in May 2018 that she began with a gemstone collection in childhood and then made jewellery around her mother’s kitchen table, “encouraged by my mother Michele and assisted by my sister Sophie,” later sourcing stones from Hong Kong, Thailand, India and the US. She told Stylist in August 2022 that she began beading after studying history at Oxford, while looking for a job. Febe says she sold handmade pieces after work, and Monocle said in November 2023 that she quit her day job 15 years earlier to start the brand.

Her stated reason is a gap in price and quality. In the Stylist interview she described the choice as “really high-end amazing pieces that were super expensive or throwaway fashion jewellery that tarnished immediately.” Missoma, she said, “carved out a category that didn’t really exist.” The company’s own website repeats the point in the first person: “I started Missoma because I was trying to find fashion-forward jewellery that was high quality but affordable and realised it didn’t exist.”

Hordern dates her first big moment to 2007. She told Stylist that Jennifer Lopez wore a pair of her hoops on the cover of Elle that year, and that they were credited to someone else by mistake. She calls those hoops “our first icon.” For a time, she said, she was a one-woman operation, designing by day and uploading to the website by night. Stylist counted about 100 people working for the brand in 2022.

Vermeil, plating and the people who wear it.

Missoma’s product language rests on materials. On its website the company lists 100% certified recycled 18ct gold vermeil on silver, 18ct gold plating on brass, sterling silver and 14ct solid gold, with a mix of lab-grown and natural diamonds, cubic zirconia and hand-cut semi-precious stones. It describes itself as expert in micron plating, and says each piece takes a full year to go from design to doorstep. Those are the company’s own statements.

Its fame owes much to collaborations. Stylist called it one of the first brands to adopt influencer collaborations, bringing in the influencer Lucy Williams eight years before its 2022 interview. Her edits, including crescent and Roman coin necklaces, were still selling then, and Stylist reported a dedicated silver collection with her that August. Missoma has also worked with the fashion designer Harris Reed and the Beijing-based creator Savi; FashionUnited listed all three collaborations among the ranges in the first store in November 2023.

Public wearing has also helped, and Hordern says it is unpaid. She told Stylist that “we’re not the brand that pays for them to wear it on the red carpet.” In Marie Claire in 2018 she said Meghan Markle had worn Missoma for years, and that the Interstellar ring and an earlier “H” ring both sold out and went on pre-order after she was seen in them.

The range has also moved upward. Missoma Fine, a line in solid gold, arrived in 2021, according to Febe; Hollywood Entertainment News reported in February 2021 that it opened with 44 pieces in 14ct gold, and that Missoma had introduced men’s chains the previous November. Seasonal capsules continue: Hypebae reported a 25-piece Summer Shop of hand-strung beads and sculptural metals in April 2026.

Design and documentation.

A jewellery retailer sells something most customers cannot judge by eye. Much of its visual identity works on that gap, using bright counters, close-up photography and printed assurances to make purity, weight and origin feel visible. The store counter is the oldest of these devices: pieces sit under strong light, on neutral trays, with a member of staff between the customer and the case.

Festive selling changes the display. Gold sets shown for weddings and holidays tend to be arranged as full ensembles, with necklace, earrings and bangles together, and campaigns are often planned around the calendar. The store itself can carry the message. JCK reported in 2023 that Tanishq’s New Jersey store used Dhokra metal-casting in its signage, and Khaleej Times reported in 2013 that Kalyan Jewellers’ UAE showrooms each had a dedicated diamond floor.

Online sellers have had to replace the counter with a screen. Their pages lean on magnified diamond viewers, grading details and rotating product images, so the shopper can inspect a stone without holding it. The certificate, the cut chart and the zoomed photograph do the work a salesperson once did, and they tend to be set in plain, spec-sheet type.

Younger demi-fine brands use a looser language. Their pictures favour stacked rings and layered chains shown on hands and necks rather than on trays, and the gift box often becomes part of the identity, since many pieces are sold as presents. Charm bars, where a customer builds a piece in the shop, turn the counter into something closer to a workshop. Each of these settings asks something different of a logo, a typeface and a palette, which is why this guide looks at what can be documented about each brand.

From website to shop floor.

Missoma says it sketches and brainstorms everything in-house at its London studio; Hordern called it “our Notting Hill studio” in FashionUnited in 2023. Production happens elsewhere. In a January 2020 Coveteur feature, made in collaboration with the brand, Hordern mentioned sourcing gemstones in Jaipur, and Elle India in December 2023, announcing the brand’s launch through the marketplace Tanzire, referred to its Thai and Indian manufacturers. The company’s responsible sourcing policy refers to the Responsible Jewellery Council Code of Practice and its own ethical code.

The company is careful in how it phrases sustainability. “100% sustainable jewellery doesn’t exist,” its website says. It lists the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles and the UN Global Compact, and says its “100% carbon neutral” label covers deliveries, returns and office space through the climate platform Vaayu, adding that it is not yet in a position to offset its supply chain. All of that is Missoma’s own account.

For more than 15 years the brand had no permanent shop. Its first permanent store opened in Covent Garden in November 2023, after a pop-up in the area, FashionUnited reported. Leeds followed in August 2024, the first store outside London, in the Victoria Quarter; Carnaby Street came in November 2024; and a two-storey flagship opened in Marylebone on 17 December 2024, the fourth permanent location, according to TheIndustry.fashion. That report described a Murano chandelier, mirrored ceilings and curved edges, along with a piercing studio and a welding studio for permanent bracelets. Hordern called Leeds “a milestone moment” in a statement, and said in FashionUnited that the expansion focused on premium destinations. Monocle said in 2023 that the brand had shipped to more than 200 countries.

On ownership, Febe reported in 2022 that Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, the Heineken heiress, took a substantial stake in 2020. Companies House lists Charlene de Carvalho as a person with significant control from February 2020, with more than 25% but not more than 50% of the shares through control of a trust. It names three such people in all, and Hordern remains founder and creative director.

For a design guide, Missoma shows how a jewellery brand can build recognition on one material and a run of named partners before it ever opens a shop. Compare Mejuri, a fine-jewellery brand also sold directly to its customers, and Monica Vinader, its neighbour among the jewellers at Victoria Leeds. For this guide we use a vermeil gold, a burnt bronze and a dark ink with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Missoma’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.