It’s the imaginary character the brand is based on. I am basically designing the content of her jewelry box. She lives in Paris but she has an Indian name. Bangla means "from Bengal", and begum means "lady" in South Asia's Muslim culture. But it’s also a family name. In the case of my character, Bangla Begum is her full name.   

Just like I subvert jewelry staples, I wanted to have fun with the storytelling of my brand. Since storytelling if fiction, why not fully embrace it and invent a fictional character? 

I wanted something with Begum, I wanted the BB alliteration, and I wanted a bicultural name. I liked Bijli Begum: bijli in Hindi means “electricity”. The electric Begum, quite a program. But a friend told me it was too hard to pronounce. He said I should find something with more weight, to balance the majesty of Begum. Something like...Bangla Begum. 

I lived in India for almost ten years during my twenties. I don't think I'll ever live there again, and my jewelry does't have an Indian feel, but I wanted one aspect of my brand to be a reference to India, because it's the country where I first learned about jewelry. It's an important, now invisible part of my life, which I chose to make (a little) visible through my brand's name. 

My name is Fanny and I founded Bangla Begum in 2019. I have been designing jewelry for 11 years, first in India where I used to live, then in Paris (I am French) where I co-founded a fine jewelry startup. A couple of years ago I left my startup and started working full time on Bangla Begum.

My first job ever was being the “eye” of a French jeweller in India. Which sounds way more glamorous than it was: I was just sorting and pairing gemstones, and doing export paperwork. I learned a lot! After a few years, I started designing my own jewelry, then after a few more years I co-founded a fine jewelry startup called Gemmyo, for which I moved back to Paris. At first I was just doing the stone buying, then we decided to be a brand and I became creative director. After five years of startup life, I left to launch Bangla Begum.

I studied philosophy :-) But I did study gemmology too, later on. I took a course in technical drawing too and I also did a coding course, which didn't help me with jewelry but helped me launch Bangla Begum! 

I’m in an open relationship with jewelry. I like the way costume jewelry allows us to play and experiment, as customers and as designers, but I also like yellow gold, old diamonds, weird gemstones. I was always a little frustrated by the segmentation in the jewelry world: it’s always just gold, or just costume, or just bridal. Even workshops operate like this, even though it’s the same techniques. With Bangla Begum, I didn’t want to price out anyone, but I didn’t want to limit myself either. And I think people appreciate this. They understand that some pieces are spectacular and difficult to make, hence expensive, and that some pieces are more fun and affordable. I think consumers are highly sophisticated, they get it!

I would say that more than anything, I like to subvert the staples of jewelry. I twist the classics! Doing so, I try to infuse them with thoughts and humour. A friend of mine says that I make “jewelry with chutzpah.” People often say it’s unique. I’ve also been told I make literary jewelry, which I like a lot. There is definitely a big narrative element in what I do, and literature, the written word, is very important to me. Even this website is built as a kind of homage to type! What is sure is that for me, jewelry is not an accessory. It’s a medium, a shield, a trace. Sometimes even a punch in the face. If you want to read more aobut this, my friend Nathalie wrote beautifully about this here.  

I wanted to design a signet ring to make (gentle!) fun of signet rings. What else than a nipple to twist this very serious jewelry staple? However, when the first prototype came back from the factory, the joke became something else. Something powerful about women. Like a grave echo to my first humorous impulse. A client told me her Boob ring was her “small totem of everything” - I couldn't say it better.

The Boob ring is made in a historic factory in the East of France. 

Sometimes! But demand has now overtaken supply. We keep sourcing these lovely vintage boxes, but we now have our own custom-made boxes too. They are made in small batches by a French workshop who makes these old-school boxes the Place Vendôme still uses. Actually, we wanted them to look like vintage packaging, so instead of our logo, we put the logo of an imaginary jewelry store. 

We recommend you to size down: most of our resizing requests are for Boob rings that are slightly too big. If you still need help, just send us a quick video by email or on Instagram and we’ll tell you right away.

A very relatable dilemna! Keep in mind that vermeil, however vibrant and golden, is a surface treatment. With time, water, life, and your laptop’s keypad, it will get a patina. Personally, I like it a lot: I like patina in general, in people and things, and I prefer a light shade of gold to a bright yellow one. But if what matters to you is an impeccable colour, then maybe go for silver. Or 18kt gold but...it is a whole different budget!

Yes, ideally you should avoid putting it in contact with liquids and soap. 

Six to eight weeks.

Order our free ring sizer . We ship it worldwide! If the Boob ring is a surprise and you don't want her to try on a ring sizer, you can always order her ring in a size you deem fit and ask for a resizing afterwards (the first one is free). Just note that returning the ring to us from outside France will be at your expense. 

Not at all, we sell a lot of 41, 42, 43, 44! Please note also that unlike most brands, our metrics is *homothetic*: the overall volume of the ring varies according to your finger size. 

No worries, the first resizing is free! If your ring doesn't fit, just request a return here and contact us to find out which size you need. Just make sure the wax seal you received your ring with is still attached. Without it, we will have to charge you the resizing (sorry).

It’s totally ok - you have 30 days to ask for a refund. Just make sure the wax seal your ring came with is still attached. Without it, we won't be able to refund you.

The Boob ring was designed for the small finger: it is where it fully lives its signet ring’s destiny. But some women wear it on their ring finger too, with as much panache and meaning. Women who visit the atelier to try on the Boob ring have often never worn a signet ring: it is usually why they are hesitating. In 99% of cases, once they try it on their small finger, they are won over. So if you can, why don't you visit us at the atelier? 

We do keep a small stock of Boob rings at the atelier, so drop us a line at hello@banglabegum.com and we will try to a ccommodate your request. That said, if you need a Boob ring urgently and are not 100% sure of your wife's size, a good option is to gift a visit to the atelier. Your wife will be able to chose the metal she likes and we will measure her exact finger size. She will still have something lovely to unwrap, as we send invitations to the atelier on beautifully calligraphed, gold-stamped cards, gift-wrapped like a present. If you would like to go ahead with this, just send us an email at hello@banglabegum.com.  

Yes, sure! I’m really interested in putting sex into jewelry, so there will be more boobs, and erotica in general, in the future. 

Yes, the Boob ring is full: you feel it on your finger. During prototyping, the factory wanted to make it hollow but I said no. I like this slight weight that makes us never forget it. Even the 18kt version, I didn’t want to hollow out: it’s in the Boob ring’s nature to be full of matter. Like us.

Yes :-) 

Yes. We give you the option at the time of checkout to pay the full price or in 2 or 3 interest-free instalments. Our payment partner, Alma, accepts cards from the following countries: France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Ireland, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. 

We do. We use DHL for non-EU deliveries and we are insured separately for all our shipments. So if anything goes amiss, we’re covered. 

Subscribe to our Back in Stock alerts! You can also contact us at hello@banglabegum.com. We can sometimes accommodate emergency requests on sold out pieces!

Online only! But you are welcome at our atelier in Paris' 11th arrondissement. All you have to do is book an appointment here.  

Our atelier in Paris is open during the week by appointment and on Saturdays without. Book your slot and come visit us! You can try on everything, find out your ring size, or just pick up an order you placed on the site. 

Both!

The Heidi earring is a clip-on and the August earcuffs are...cuffs, which means they can be worn on unpierced ears!      

We use 18kt gold, which means it contains 75% of pure gold (75% of 24kt = 18kt). The Boob ring’s and the gourmettes' gold content is guaranteed by an official gold hallmark.

We produce the Boob ring, the Travel vase and the Ada earrings on order. The rest is produced regularly, but in very small quantities. If we are between productions, you may have to wait a little for the next delivery.

Mostly in France but also in Italy and Algeria. We work with a small foundry, a metal engraving workshop, an assembling workshop and a prototyping studio, all in Paris. We order eveything we can, from chains to clasps and small metal bits, from local suppliers. We order a few specific findings, only made in China, from there. Some of our chains come from Germany. Our surface treatment (gold, silver, varnish, enamel) is done just outside Paris. The painting factory we work with is outside Paris too and our enameller is in the Vendée region of France. The Boob ring is made in the East of France. We order our glass beads from a small factory in the Poitou region of France. We make some of our casts in Algeria, in a family-owned factory near Oran. Only the Magic ring is entirely made abroad, in Italy, because glyptic (the art of engraving gemstones) doesn't exist in France anymore. 

Our goal is to produce as locally as possible, and in the cleanest possible way, packaging that you don't want to throw away. For 18kt gold pieces we use a mix of vintage jewelry boxes from all over the world and jewelry boxes made for us by a historic French factory. For other items, we use jewelry pouches made of old linen and small boxes made in Spain with FSC certified paper. Our gift bags are made of kraft paper, just like our shipping boxes (we source them from Austria). As for our cards, postcards, and the shredding inside our shipping boxes, they are all 100% recycled. 

Ethical can mean different things. Technically, to claim a metal piece as ethical, the whole cast cylinder used to make the piece needs to be filled with ethically sourced metal. For the moment, our production is too small to fill a whole cylinder and there isn’t enough ethical metal available for our French factories to switch entirely to ethical metal. That's why we started making some Boob rings in Thailand: we found a workshop, French-run, that uses 100% recycled silver. That said, French factories already comply with stringent standards of metal tracability and waste water treatment. In the end, producing respectfully, in small quantities and with workshops we pay fairly, this is what being ethical means to us. 

Good question. No industry extracting metal and gemstones from the earth will ever be ethical. Sorry. But we are doing what we can to make it a gentler process. We produce very small quantities of very small objects that you will keep for a long time. We designed a client experience with the lightest possible carbon footprint. And we give back 1% of our revenue to environmental causes. 

We do. Begum is a member of 1% FOR THE PLANET, which means we donate 1% of our revenues to environmental causes. 1% FOR THE PLANET was created by Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard to connect companies with approved environmental groups.

We do. We try to shoot our jewelry on a cast as diverse as possible in terms of race, age, gender and body type. Internally, we also want to be a team as diverse as possible. We are still very small but we will get there!