Molten Beauty: Dalal Alosaimi’s Moody Jewellery is the New Face of Kuwaiti Luxury

Gold dripping from a necklace. Barbed wire coiling around fingers. Edgy and unconventional are the first words that come to mind when I meet Dalal Alosaimi, founder of Moody by OD Jewellery, in her homeland of Kuwait. Our first encounter happened in Bahrain in 2024, and this year our paths crossed again during the Qerat exhibition that I attended at the beginning of October. Dalal’s intriguing personality and daring designs made me want to dig deeper into her world of creativity intertwined with emotions, and I invite you to discover it together with me.

Imagine: we are in a spacious room at the Grand Hyatt hotel, and Dalal is laying her designs out for me to see. With a glint in her eye, she lifts her hand to show me one of her rings from the Wethaq collection. “It’s part jewellery, part self-defence,” she jokes. “It’s painful when you punch someone with it—it’s kind of sharp!” It’s a fitting remark from a designer who has always followed her instincts over convention.

Growing up in a traditional Kuwaiti family, Dalal was never one to follow expectations. “My dad wanted a girlie girl,” she tells me. “But I had other ideas.” That tension between affection and independence lies at the heart of her work. Her designs fuse rebellion with refinement—molten gold meets precision craftsmanship; thorns cradle diamonds; butterflies breaking free from chains—each jewel a reflection of its maker.

Dalal grew up in a lively Kuwaiti household with brothers and sisters, and it was fascinating to learn about her family. “My mum is a superwoman,” she says fondly. “Family is everything to her.” While her mother loved to nurture life in the garden and collect vintage jewels from her travels to India, Dalal was drawn to a different kind of adventure—one that often left her father exasperated. “I was a tomboy,” she laughs. “I’d be in the car with my brothers, causing my dad all sorts of problems.” That refusal to conform would later become the spark that fuels her creativity.

Her mother’s influence, however, runs just as deep. A lifelong jewellery lover, she instilled in Dalal a deep appreciation for craftsmanship and history. “My mum owns incredible vintage pieces. She often wears them at home, wandering around the house. They’re like her babies.” If you are a jewellery lover like Dalal’s mum or me, I am sure you do the same thing regularly. I certainly do!

Like many creative beginnings, Moody by OD Jewellery started almost by accident. “It was just a hobby at first,” Dalal explains. “I made pieces for myself—small things I liked to wear. Then people started asking where I’d got them.” What began as a form of personal expression soon drew wider attention. Encouraged by that response, Dalal used her quiet time during COVID as a catalyst to launch a brand she officially founded in 2022.

Listening to the designer’s stories and inspirations, I explore the collections one by one. I would say that 18K gold is the protagonist in her collections, with diamonds appearing frequently, but never as the main focus. Dalal’s designs communicate what words sometimes can’t: independence, love, protection and the tension between freedom and belonging.

Moody by OD Butterfly collection began as a meditation on constraint and release. “You know when a chain gets tangled?” the designer says. “The butterfly is breaking the chain.” Crafted in gold and set with rough diamonds, the pieces symbolise resilience and renewal. “It’s about protection and independence,” she adds. “It’s like my relationship with my dad—he’s tough, but his love is good-intentioned.”

The Kefah collection takes a softer turn, paying homage to her mother. “My mum’s name is Kefah, and she loves plants,” Dalal explains. “Every day after school, I’d find her in the greenhouse, talking to her plants. When we argued, I’d go to her garden and tease them — that was my revenge!” she laughs. In the jewellery, vines of gold wrap gently around the wrist or finger, with a pierced diamond suspended like a dewdrop. “I wanted to capture her love of nurturing — the patience it takes to grow something.”

Then there’s the Wethaq collection. Translating to bond or promise in Arabic, its barbed wire motifs are both beautiful and unsettling with their sharpness softened by the sculptural elegance of the jewels. “It’s like a promise between two people,” Dalal says. “These are pieces that protect, even when they look spiky.”

Her latest collection, 1064, takes that symbolism even further. “Gold and tears share a resemblance in their rarity and purity,” she says. “Both evoke transformation and resilience.” Named after the melting point of gold, the collection is a meditation on emotional alchemy and how, when met with courage, pain and vulnerability can be transformed into beauty.

For Dalal, creativity is never linear. “Ideas come to me suddenly,” she says. “Sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes over coffee. I just grab a pen and start sketching before it disappears.” Her process is instinctive yet meticulously executed. When she first decided to pierce a diamond for the Kefah collection, she discovered only a handful of specialists in the world have the necessary skills to do it. “I had to send the diamonds to India to be drilled,” she recalls. “They’re the only ones who can do it with the kind of precision I am looking for.”

Navigating a conservative culture while pursuing such bold ideas hasn’t been without its challenges. “Most people who buy from me now do it because they want to know me,” she admits. “I want them to love the jewellery, not the story.” Her pop-ups and exhibitions, from Bahrain to Kuwait City, are her way of meeting new audiences on her own terms.

“It’s time for people outside my circle to see what I do,” she says. There’s courage in that statement—a determination to be recognised for her work, rather than her background. As Dalal’s voice carries beyond Kuwait’s borders, the Moody by OD Jewellery story is only just beginning. I’ll be watching with anticipation as she continues to move forwards, forging her own path, one empowering jewel at a time.