Lebanon-born designer Nada Ghazal’s newest collection, Whispers of Joy, came from a personal place. The start of 2026 was emotionally painful and chaotic, and for Nada, every collection begins as an extension of feeling. “I felt a profound shift within myself, a lightness, optimism, and sense of joy that naturally started finding its way into my creative process,” says Nada, whose sketches turned playful and fluid, as if reining in emotions within their curves.
Then, in March and April, Lebanon went through another devastating period of war, and her family suffered a deep personal loss. “I struggled to accept it at first,” she shares. “But in the midst of grief, I made a conscious decision to invite joy back into my life.”
The London-based designer opens up about finding joy through design amidst personal loss. Read on:
With everything that happened, how did you get your new collection ready in time for the Couture Show in Vegas?
NG: I usually spend time in Beirut during production, working closely with my workshop. Because of the situation in March and April, I couldnt travel, so I sent the CADs and asked my team to begin casting and developing the pieces. With Couture Show (held at the end of May in Las Vegas), I decided in the last week of April that I had to see all the pieces for myself. As soon as I arrived in Beirut on the 2nd of May, despite everything, I felt a spark of joy. When I walked into the workshop, I realised the pieces had drifted away from the emotion that inspired them in the first place. I decided to melt what had already been cast and revisit my original sketches — not starting from scratch, but returning to the ideas that had inspired Whispers of Joy at the beginning of the year. For two intense weeks, my team and I worked day and night, refining and evolving the designs until they reflected what I wanted to express. It was demanding, especially with production, photography (and Couture then still ahead of us), but it became a defining moment for the collection — a reminder that the most important part of creating is having the courage to return to what felt true from the start.
Your signature is sensual, fluid, rendered in brushed 18k gold. What inspired the names and forms?
NG: Movement has always been part of my design language, but in Whispers of Joy it took on a different expression. Despite using a significant amount of gold, I wanted the pieces to feel lighter and more playful.
The names Floating Joy, Dancing Joy, and Wave of Joy reflect what I saw in my designs — pieces that seemed to dance, sway, and move with the body. Some reminded me of waves; others almost felt as though they were smiling at me. That comes directly from the emotion behind the collection. Joy has a certain lightness to it. It’s uplifting, free, and difficult to contain. Also, as I worked, that feeling found its way into the forms, making them fluid and full of movement even in gold.
The gems in Whispers of Joy include champagne diamonds to pink, orange, and yellow sapphires. What led you to these gems and colour palette?
The palette was something I thought about from the beginning. As the collection developed, I was drawn to colours that felt vibrant, joyful, and full of life. Purples, oranges, yellows, pinks, and greens combined into a cheerful, multi-coloured palette distilled the collection’s emotion.
Whispers of Joy was made to invite joy into our lives, so colour became central to its expression. The sapphires brought energy, warmth, and spontaneity, and allowed me to capture that feeling of optimism and lightness. That said, I didn’t move away from diamonds, they remain an important part of my design language, and several pieces are set exclusively with them. This collection, for me, was all about giving myself the freedom to use colour, wherever it helped tell the story of joy.
The collection sits across three sub-lines — Floating Joy, Dancing Joy, Wave of Joy. Tell us about their formal form yet singular emotional vibe.
Although divided into three families, they all stem from the same emotion. I think of them as different moods of joy, much like morning, afternoon, and evening are part of the same day, yet each carries its own energy. As I sketched, certain forms began to speak the same language and gravitate toward one another; some lighter and more effortless, others more playful and expressive, others carrying a rhythm that reminded me of waves. It’s usually an intuitive process with the pieces revealing where they belong as my collection evolves. Of course, some pieces challenge those boundaries. When that happens, I amend, improvise, and move things around until everything feels right. I’m very conscious of consistency, so while the process is intuitive, there's also a great deal of editing involved. Ultimately, every piece needs to feel like it belongs, both within its family and the larger story of the collection.
Is Whispers of Joy doing different things for different people, or is joy, in the end, the same language everywhere?
London and Beirut are both deeply present in my life, and naturally, in my work. Beirut is where my story began. Beirut shaped my creativity, my resilience, and how I experience and express emotion. London, though, has opened a new chapter for the brand and let me share that story with a wider audience. I don’t think people connect to Whispers of Joy differently. While creating this collection, I felt that everyone needed joy. It resonates beyond geography — it’s not about a city or a specific story.