Meet Alya

Was a question asked by my teacher when I was about eight years old. My classmates had the most fantastical answers: a firefighter, a ballerina, a football player, a vet. I knew, too, what I wanted to be and very confidently proclaimed: “a business woman. Just like my daddy.”
I was only five years old when my family left Zaire, nowadays known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, and settled in Antwerp, Belgium. Being the diamond epicenter of the world, and having grown up with this industry I was always intrigued by what this city had to offer. As a child I would visit my father’s office and watch diamonds being sorted, graded and extensively negotiated over. I was mesmerized by the cultural diversity and peculiar protocols that did not seem to exist anywhere else. But above all, I learned that this business is about trust and correctness, and that one’s reputation is worth more than gold. I knew right then and there this would be my legacy too. Somehow. I aspired to create something of my own, which I soon discovered was an unmistakable desire that existed with every fiber of my being. It did, however, take me a while to figure out how exactly that would take shape in my own life. So I went on to attain a business degree, followed by a diamond grading certification from HRD (the High Council for Diamonds in Antwerp) back in 2011, and spent the next decade living and working in the Middle East, exploring the fields of luxury fashion, jewelry and yoga. Meanwhile, this early vision of myself as a business owner always stayed with me.