Women who lead
Annoushka Ducas knows how important it is to be given support. She tells Jackie Brown how she is dedicated to passing this on with The Prince’s Trust
Key to being a successful entrepreneur is having the confidence to give something a go – a lesson that jeweller Annoushka Ducas learned from an early age: ‘I was brought up by my mother, who had a real can-do attitude. “No” was a word I was not allowed to use. Her mentality was “Just try it!” and that’s been a real mantra for me. My mum gave me the confidence to try things and that has been fundamental throughout my life.’
It’s an approach that led Annoushka to set up Links of London in the 1990s, which had 50 stores when she and her husband sold it. She then went on to create the luxurious Annoushka brand, much loved by numerous celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow.
Now she’s spreading her own style of positive thinking to young women in need of support. Through her friend Chrissie Rucker, founder of The White Company, she has become involved with Women Supporting Women, an arm of The Prince’s Trust that raises money for young women looking to take business courses or training to help them on a new path.
‘One of the reasons I feel so strongly about what Women Supporting Women does is because I was so lucky to have my mother telling me “just try”,’ she says. ‘I think so many young women – young people in general – don’t have anyone to give them that confidence. It has been very important to my journey and I can’t imagine what my life would have looked like if I had not had my mother around to encourage me. I feel passionate about helping other people.’
Annoushka came up with the idea for The Brilliant Breakfast, an annual event to raise money to support women on Prince’s Trust programmes, which takes place this year from 10 to 16 October. GH is delighted to be supporting it to mark our centenary year. Launched in 2020, the idea is simple: hold a breakfast for friends or colleagues with everyone donating what they can afford to The Prince’s Trust.
GETTING STARTED
Annoushka, 56, never trained as a jeweller and she explains how her career and Links came about almost by chance. ‘My mother supplied 60 top restaurants in London with fish. She had 60 chefs to give a present to and asked me what she could give,’ she recalls. ‘At the time, I was working in Hong Kong and used to travel a lot. I found a silver workshop on a trip to the Philippines and suggested we created cufflinks with a fish on one side and fish bones on the other.’
PHOTOGRAPHY: DAN HACK, IAN JONES
It was cheaper to make 120 pairs and when Annoushka moved back to London, she decided to sell the ones she had left over: ‘I didn’t have any contacts but I got in touch with a buyer at Harvey Nichols. At the time, there were either silk-
