Tired of wearing jewellery the same old way? In 2026, fine jewellery is moving beyond the body and finding new ways of being worn. In fashion’s current hyper-personalised era, even handbags have become canvases for self-expression. Two worlds that normally have no business meeting have collided in the form of Bag Bijoux, a line of fine jewellery bag charms designed by Dubai-based Ashna Mehta.
Raised in a family that’s been in the diamond trade for over six decades, Mehta is no stranger to precious stones. “I’ve kind of grown up making jewellery my whole life,” she tells Vogue of how she got her start as a jeweller. “But, organically, I started making pieces for myself and other people started resonating with them.” Mehta started out with a basketball collection that she says was based on her life growing up in New York, and the response inspired her to really explore jewellery design.
The idea of Bag Bijoux came to Mehta from a personal place. “My sister Aria and I collect Hermès bags, something our mom passed down to us,” she says. Aria and Ashna are both jewellery designers, and the two of them began thinking about ways to personalise their handbags without compromising their value–an especially important quality of Hermès bags. “If you paint on a handbag, you’re not going to be able to resell it,” she explains. “We wanted to personalise our handbags in a way that doesn’t damage the bag’s resale value.”
Mehta’s Bag Bijoux first took off after a sighting at the glitzy, celebrity-packed Ambani wedding. In a sea of sensational jewels, Mehta’s sparkly and quirky bijoux stood out: a diamond-encrusted rose gold ‘AM’ letter charm, and an evil-eye jewel–both worn on her croc Kelly clutch. Julia Hackman Chafé, a New York-based designer and content creator, spotted the pieces and gave them a shoutout online, and the pictures of Mehta’s creations went viral.
“I realised, okay, this is a product people really want,” she says of the online reaction. Fashion’s obsession with bag charms was at an all-time high at the time in 2024. Oversized, furry charms like Labubus and Crybabies, keychains and beads had the fashion cognoscenti in a chokehold. Mehta identified an opportunity to come up with something more elevated. “I didn’t want to make a bag charm,” she explains, “I wanted to start making bag jewellery.”
What followed were months of research and development, working with 18-carat gold, natural diamonds, and precious gemstones to create pieces that clasp perfectly onto Birkin and Kelly straps. Mehta’s Bag Bijoux are designed for bags primarily, but they can also be transformed into a pendant or brooch. “I wanted to make it economically justifiable for people,” she tells us, echoing the kind of stylistic versatility that has always been found in high jewellery design.
An impressive celebrity clientele followed shortly, with names like Kylie Jenner, Mindy Kaling, and Nita and Isha Ambani placing orders for their own Bag Bijoux. “I realised these bags can now become a personal branding billboard,” says Mehta. Jenner, for instance, commissioned a piece for her Himalaya Birkin in the shape of Kylie Cosmetics’s lip-shaped logo. Considering how much Jenner is photographed, it’s a shrewd way of getting marketing visibility without generic advertising.
The appeal of Mehta’s Bag Bijoux seems especially strong in a time when luxury consumers are embracing individuality. “We know what everyone has now,” says Mehta of the kind of visibility that social media has ushered in. Instead, “people want something that’s uniquely theirs.”
In a market saturated with globally recognisable symbols of wealth, personalisation has become the new status symbol. There’s nothing to stop the acquisitions of ultra-luxury handbags, but investing in whimsical fine jewellery to decorate it can elevate, refresh, and even give the accessories a brand new look. Besides, jewellery like this can (like those Hermès bags) be passed down for generations.
This new appetite has birthed a clientele willing to spend extraordinary amounts on customised jewels like Bag Bijoux. Some of Mehta’s creations cost more than the bags they bedeck—and often her creations are worn on top-of-the-line exotic leather bags from Hermès.
Gilded Bloom, her latest masterpiece, is handcrafted in yellow and white gold, set with a remarkable 36.89-carat Fancy Intense Yellow cushion-cut diamond, and with 34.90 carats of rose-cut diamonds, and 6.65 carats of round brilliant diamonds. A high jewellery piece in its own right, Gilded Bloom is estimated to cost around US$2.1 million. It pushes the boundaries of the collection, says Mehta of the piece. “It’s the crown jewel of Bag Bijoux.”
The customisation process is deeply collaborative for Mehta. Clients often begin by sharing personal references, stories, and images before she develops a few sketches. “We need that human touch for creating pieces on this level,” she says of the process. Some requests are sentimental, others extravagant. Mehta’s clients have requested everything from zodiac signs to beloved pets and whimsical floral motifs in diamonds.
Mehta, though, is already thinking about the future. After turning handbags into a new site for adornment, she is now imagining the idea in reverse: not bag bijoux, but bijoux bags. Imagine that: wearing handbags made from gold and diamonds on the crook of your elbow, or held as a clutch.
