5 Times Jaipur Jewellery Was Celebrated on the World Stage

Founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, Jaipur has long invited master jewellers from across the world and India including Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi, to settle in the new city and work under royal patronage. That decision established a craft ecosystem—in kundan setting, meenakari enamelling, gemstone cutting, and polki work—that never left the entire world’s attention ever since. The Pink City now accounts for roughly 25 per cent of India’s gem and jewellery exports. Below, what follows is a list of all the times when Jaipur jewellery made itself impossible to ignore.

Amrapali Jewels’ Ruby-Diamond Ring Worn by Taylor Swift

Recently, pop sensation Taylor Swift became the youngest woman ever to receive the Songwriters Hall of Fame honour. For the ceremony, Swift arrived in a black Givenchy gown by Sarah Burton. Her ring, however, is what people couldn’t stop talking about. The ring by Amrapali Jewels—a Jaipur-based house founded in 1978 by Rajiv Arora and Rajesh Ajmera—features a 2.41-carat oval ruby set in 18-karat gold, surrounded by rose-cut diamonds arranged in a floral halo. The house now operates 38 locations across India and a flagship in Knightsbridge, London, with concessions at Harrods and Selfridges. The ring, on Amrapali Jewels’ website is priced at Rs 9.4 lakh.

Jacques Cartier at the Delhi Durbar in 1911

In 1911, Jacques Cartier travelled to India for the coronation of George V at the Delhi Durbar, carrying a small pouch of what were his “killer stones”— a Burmese ruby, a Kashmir sapphire, a Colombian emerald, and a Golconda diamond—to use as a comparison when buying from dealers. Among other cities, he visited Jaipur, and returned to Paris with carved gemstones that formed the basis of Cartier's Tutti Frutti aesthetic, a signature the house still produces today.  The maharajas of Patiala, Jaipur, Baroda, Nawanagar, and Kapurthala all commissioned pieces from him in the decades that followed. The Maharaja of Patiala's five-tiered diamond necklace, centred on a 234-carat De Beers yellow diamond with over 2,930 stones in total, remains one of the most significant single commissions in jewellery history. Francesca Cartier Brickell, Jacques's great-granddaughter, has since written that those maharaja commissions were so significant during the Great Depression they may well have saved the house from collapse.

Maharani Gayatri Devi and the Pearls That the World Kept Coming Back to

Maharani Gayatri Devi was the third Maharani of Jaipur, and she carried her jewellery the way most people carry punctuation — sparingly, with absolute precision. Her signature was a double strand of pearls worn against chiffon saris in soft pastels. A photograph published in Life magazine showing her alongside Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — both women in matching double-strand necklaces — became one of the most widely circulated images of Indian royalty in the 20th century. When Gayatri Devi died in 2009 at 90, designers including Sabyasachi Mukherjee cited her as a continuing reference. At the Met Gala 2026, her grandchildren Gauravi Kumari and Sawai Padmanabh Singh wore polki, kundan, and pearl pieces onto the red carpet, and searches for her pearl styling spiked immediately.

Hanut Singh's Earrings on Meryl Streep at Cannes 2024

In 2024, Meryl Streep received the Honorary Palme d'Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival — only the 19th recipient since the award was established in 2002, in a list that included Catherine Deneuve, Jodie Foster, and Tom Cruise. She arrived in a white satin Dior wrap dress. The only jewellery she wore was a pair of pendant earrings by Hanut Singh. Singh launched his namesake label in 2002 and is a great-grandson of the Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala, whose commissioned pieces from Cartier and Boucheron — and whose family's taste for Jaipur's gemstone traditions — form a significant part of his design inheritance. His work draws on Mughal and Rajput craftsmanship, Art Deco geometry, and the carved stone traditions of Rajasthan. For those who don’t know, Singh does not take commissions, does not pay celebrities, and does not advertise.

The Duchess of Cambridge in Amrapali at a Bollywood Gala in Mumbai

In 2016, Kate Middleton, then the Duchess of Cambridge, arrived at a fundraising gala at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai wearing a royal blue floor-length Jenny Packham gown. The jewellery she chose was not British. She wore lapis and diamond drop earrings from Amrapali — set in yellow gold, with two lapis stones suspended one above the other and framed with small diamonds. It was described at the time as a deliberate nod to the host country. The following year, the founders of Amrapali, Rajiv Arora and Rajesh Ajmera, were invited to Buckingham Palace for the official start of the UK-India Year of Culture — the only Indian jewellers present at the reception. Kate, who was also at the event, reflected on wearing the earrings the previous year.