Cece Jewellery’s fairytale-inspired gold collection blends romance and darkness

Fairy tale, but sharpened

Cece Jewellery’s new Once Upon A Time collection does not lean into sweetness alone. It takes the romance of a storybook world and folds in storm clouds, sharp edges, and a faintly tragic undertow, which is exactly why the line feels current: it treats gold jewelry as a way to tell a story, not just signal status.

The collection is framed in Cece’s own language as set in “storm-darkened seas and moonlit kingdoms,” with tales of “love, lust and longing” unfolding inside the fantasy. That tension between “happily-ever-after” imagery and something darker is the hook, and it gives the collection a mood that is more Shakespeare than nursery rhyme. In the brand’s own question, the love story could be “straight from a fairytale or a Shakespearean tragedy.”

The pieces turn the narrative into metal

The strongest pieces in the line translate that mood into 18k gold with unusual theatricality. JCK singled out an 18k yellow gold anchor choker set with freshwater pearls, brilliant-cut diamonds, and champlevé enamel, a combination that makes the maritime symbolism feel romantic rather than costume-like. Anchors suggest devotion and endurance; pearls soften the look; diamonds and enamel keep it from becoming precious in a conventional way.

The wider Once Upon A Time range goes further into the brand’s storytelling vocabulary. The collection page includes the Fairytale Pearl Choker at £4,000, the Fairytale Horse Ring at £10,000, the Deep Sea Octopus Ring at £10,900, the Violent Delights Diamond Heart Earrings from £16,900, the Full Moon Diamond Ring at £95,800, and the He Loves Me Diamond Ring at £212,500. That spread tells you this is not a single price point dressed up as a collection. It is a layered universe, moving from a four-figure entry piece into genuinely high-jewelry territory.

Why the craft matters as much as the concept

Cece Fein Hughes built the brand around a very specific technique: champlevé enamel on 18ct gold and diamonds. That matters, because enamel work can easily disappear behind branding language, yet here it is central to the identity of the jewelry. Champlevé enamel gives the surfaces depth and color while preserving the weight and permanence of gold, which is part of why these pieces read as wearable objects rather than illustration alone.

Hughes has said she came to the craft after training at the British Academy of Jewellery in 2018 and could not find enamel jewelry that celebrated the medium in a modern, wearable way. She launched Cece Jewellery in 2022, working from Hatton Garden in London, and the location fits the proposition: this is a contemporary luxury brand rooted in one of the city’s oldest jewelry districts. The pieces are handcrafted in London by goldsmiths and a master enameller, a production model that gives the collection more substance than the usual trend-led launch.

The motifs are not random decorations

Cece’s visual language has long drawn from old-school sailor tattoos, folklore, fairytales, Dartmoor, and Hughes’s father’s tattoo imagery, and Once Upon A Time makes those references feel fully integrated. The anchor, horse, moon, octopus, heart, and pearl are not decorative afterthoughts; they are the building blocks of a symbolic vocabulary that runs through the collection. Even the darker notes feel deliberate, as if the brand is asking you to read the jewelry as a narrative object with a plot and a mood.

That is also why the collection stands apart from generic “romantic” jewelry. Romance here is not just hearts and blossoms. It comes with moonlight, sea spray, and the possibility of betrayal, which makes the pieces feel closer to heirlooms from an invented legend than to seasonal accessories. For buyers drawn to jewelry with personality, the distinction matters: the story is built into the gold, not added in marketing copy after the fact.

A luxury brand with real momentum

The business behind the fantasy has also been gaining traction. Cece launched with a £40,000 seed investment and grew from £14,000 in sales to £960,000, with revenue projected to reach £2 million. The brand has been stocked by Liberty London and sold through Net-a-Porter, Goop, Catbird, and Twist, which puts it in the company of both British heritage retail and globally visible luxury platforms.

Recognition has followed the sales. The British Academy of Jewellery said Hughes was shortlisted for the Jewelers of America 2026 Gem Awards in Jewelry Design and named in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2023. Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner, Sydney Sweeney, and Dakota Fanning have also been seen in Cece pieces, which helps explain why the brand has crossed from niche enamel specialist to a label with broader cultural reach.

Why Once Upon A Time feels bigger than one collection

The most interesting thing about Once Upon A Time is that it treats enamel, gold, and gemstones as carriers of emotion. Hughes has said the brand exists not only to make jewelry, but to preserve and advance enamel craftsmanship and train the next generation of enamelers, which gives the collection an additional layer of seriousness beneath the fantasy.

That is where the line lands its final note. Once Upon A Time is not just a fairytale collection with a moody palette. It is a case study in how narrative-driven gold jewelry can feel intimate, technically ambitious, and commercially sharp at the same time, with romance and darkness finally sharing the same setting.