Houston Jewelry Brand Beloved by Hollywood Stars and Michelle Obama Takes Off: Inside Sutra’s Amazing Rise and an Improbable Power Couple’s Worldly Marriage

Here’s how an improbable trajectory to Hollywood fame took off: A newlywed couple with a fledgling jewelry atelier based in Houston captured the attention of Halle Berry, who wanted to accessorize a Dolce & Gabbana micro frock for the premiere of her 2012 film, Cloud Atlas. Sutra white-gold and gray-diamond earrings, which dangled from the star’s neck, did the trick.

But before the fame and fortunate Hollywood connection, it was a story of a marriage of two immigrants of Indian descent, Arpita and Divyanshu Navlakha, and two contradictory traditions of what jewelry in modern India should be.

His family, based in northern Delhi, created works that hearken to classical motifs and traditional designs extending back to the Mughal period — elaborate creations seen at Indian weddings: encrusted bib necklaces, draping diamond chains, collar and cuffs adorned with impressive emerald beads. In contrast, Arpita’s family’s Mumbai factory produced jewelry for India’s booming modern commercial market.

Romancing the Stones

The couple met 13 years ago — and bucking Indian tradition, it was not an arranged introduction, but occurred in a non-romantic spot: GIA World Headquarters in Carlsbad, California, where both were studying at The Robert Mouawad Campus of the gem school.

Amidst this intensive setting for gemologic study, a romance blossomed despite the fact they were from two different Indian states. They wed in December 2007. The following year, with GIA diplomas in hand, the Navlakhas moved to Houston to launch their company. As a teen, Arpita had attended Dulles High School in Sugar Land, after her parents relocated to Houston for their jewelry business

At Sutra, their roles reflect their respective strengths: She’s a designer; he’s the sleuth for stones.

Elizabeth Anthony

Swipe

ASSAEL

OLYMPIA LE-TAN

EMILY P. WHEELER

EMILY P. WHEELER

MARIA OLIVER

KATHERINE JETTER

MEREDITH YOUNG

LEIGH MAXWELL

MEREDITH YOUNG

Next

The entire process is intensely collaborative. “Divyanshu goes on trips and buys most of the stones,” Arpita says, “and we look at them and design together as a team.” As for the couple’s shared heritage, she says, “Since we’re both born in India, I’m sure it shows some way or the other in our jewelry.”

The name Sutra is taken from Sanskrit and translates as a collection of sacred verses and sacred poems.

“A lot of ancient, sacred books have been written with ‘Sutra’ in the name,” Divyanshu says. “For example, the Kama Sutra. It’s mythological Hindu.”

Hollywood’s Brand Ambassadors

With a High Jewellery Collection soaring into six and seven figures, Sutra soon caught the eyes of J.Lo, Oprah, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Gigi Hadid, Hilary Swank and Taylor Swift. Such exposure in a short decade has catapulted the business into the lofty ranks of exhibitors at the world’s foremost show of international jewelers, Baselworld in Basel, Switzerland, where one must be among the most elite to show collections.

With business and design headquarters in Houston, manufacturing workshops in Mumbai, and an additional office serving the burgeoning Asian market from Hong Kong, the structure requires incessant travel — for Arpita, trips between Texas and India, and for Divyanshu, to ports of call  more far afield, in search of stones of impeccable pedigree and to open up emerging markets, especially in China.

“We work with one store in China right now, but they have 15 different locations, so they need a lot of servicing,” he says.

The concept of “ethically mined” is paramount. Sutra collaborates with Gemfields on sourcing ethically mined rubies and emeralds from Africa. Burma is off the table due to human-rights abuse.

“Ethically mined is becoming more and more important,” Divyanshu says.

The Sutra Aesthetic

What’s most remarkable about Sutra is the jewelry itself: a sea of intricate and bold creations. Arpita holds up one of their calling cards, a $1.2 million diamond-and-emerald collar necklace in white gold, which was a show stopper at Baselworld.

With traditional Indian jewelry, what touches the skin should be as beautiful as what you show to the world outside,” she says. Therefore, Sutra jewelry is beautifully finished, front and back.

We’re looking at a ring set with a stone that Arpita has claimed for Sutra — the Paraíba, a dazzling crystalline gem that recalls the color of the most azure ocean.

“Paraíbas are very, very, very rare tourmalines,” she says. “Cost-wise, they can be more expensive than big diamonds.”

The Paraíba, which hails from Brazil and Mozambique, gets its intense blue from the presence of copper, and it made its first appearance in a Sutra cocktail ring in 2012, and remains one of the line’s most impressive creations.

Spinels, bucking the expected black, appear in rare shades of red and pink; their origin is Tanzania.

“I love combining different gemstones,” Arpita says.

She pulls out a pair of dangling earrings where the opals’ iridescent pallor contrasts with the tender pink of sapphires. Delicate peach-colored angel-skin corals dialogue with amethysts in bracelets and rings.

Dynamic blue turquoise, sourced from Arizona’s Sleeping Beauty mine, is far from Western — in Arpita’s hands, it’s highly polished into cabochons and paired with diamonds. Turquoise has also been set among sapphires in a cocktail ring, arranged in an arabesque design echoing Mughal shapes.

Arpita lays out a pair of ruby-and-diamond fan earrings in rose gold, similar to the Sutra pair J.Lo wore with her flame-red Versace gown for the Met Costume Institute Gala in 2015. Other collections are downright dainty yet stunning in their infinite attention to detail — the Deco-inspired Tassel; the Feather with its ode to the national bird of India, the Peacock; and the Butterfly, inspired by encounters in the Mumbai Gardens that would thrill any lepidopterist.

The First Lady’s Seal of Approval

The Navlakhas credit individuals from First Lady Michelle Obama to Houston’s Zadok family, as well as Neiman Marcus, for facilitating the successful story that is Sutra.

Regarding FLOTUS’ endorsement, Divyanshu says, “What was amazing was the fact that someone so important would wear a baby brand.

“Normally, the First Lady would wear classical Cartier or classical Bulgari — like a string of pearls — but First Lady Michelle Obama had the guts to go a different route, and she wore someone who wasn’t well known; maybe she saw something in it. She gave so many young designers the opportunity for exposure, which is amazing.”

Obama wore Sutra for important evening appearances: state dinners for the presidents of France and Mexico, ceremonies including the 2013 Oscars telecast where she presented the award for Best Picture to Argo, and, this past February, she wore Sutra diamond feather earrings for the unveiling of the President and First Lady’s portraits at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

When Michelle Obama attended one of her final Kennedy Center Honors as First Lady, her apricot-hued  Monique Lhuillier gown was accessorized by a pair of Sutra earrings set with exotic pink gems.

Future Gazing

The couple insists that Sutra will remain headquartered in Texas; their global strategy will be enacted from Houston, where they first dreamed up their collection. Sutra is already in the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia) and throughout Asia, but there’s more of the world to consider.

“We definitely would like to expand to places that we are not currently,” Arpita says. “Australia, Africa… There are so many markets where people are hungry for something different.”

Divyanshu confirms that freestanding Sutra boutiques are also a possibility. “I think if we were to open our first store, we would do it in Beverly Hills or the Los Angeles area,” he says.

They are also striving to expand their customer base: While most pieces are priced $30,000 to $50,000, with one-of-a-kind works hitting six or even seven figures, Sutra recently introduced jewels priced under $20,000 — making their colorful take on gemstones accessible for the emerging jewelry buyer. Like the multitude of colored stones that burn brightly across Sutra’s Mosaic Collection, the future is abundant and shining.

Sutra is at Zadok Jewelers in Houston. In Dallas, Sutra is at Eiseman Jewels and Neiman Marcus.