Jade Jagger’s Beach Boutique: A Bohemian Jewel Box on Ashwen Sands
Jade Jagger
Artist first, jeweler by way of Jaipur, and the woman whose hut of woven palm fronds on Ashwem Beach holds more glamour than most flagship stores.
Tucked between sand and palms on Ashwem Beach, Jade Jagger's boutique is not a store. It is a little treasure trove with a roof.
I have a soft spot for this corner of North Goa, and an even softer one for what Jade has built there: a chic cabana dripping with Goan charm and her signature boho-luxe flair, reopened each season when the December light returns. It was there that I bought one of my favorite dresses, by Anami & Janine, the London duo known since 2005 for feminine, quirky wrap dresses cut from vibrant sari fabrics. That is the boutique in one purchase: handpicked, storied, impossible to find anywhere else.
Jade is an original Gypsetter, and long before the word existed she was living it. But what this page really wants you to know is the part the tabloid shorthand always misses: she began as a fine artist, and she has returned to the brush with some of the most quietly beautiful work of her life.
Leila
Stepping inside feels like stepping into the designer's personal treasure trove, because that is literally what it is: every piece handpicked by Jade, zero corporate blandness, the curation whispering of Ibiza sunsets, Marrakech souks, and Rajasthan palaces. Handcrafted jewelry, from the iconic skull motifs of her rock and roll roots to collections heavy with raw gemstones. Breezy resortwear: linen kaftans, embroidered tunics, beaded sandals. One-of-a-kind artifacts gathered on her travels: tribal textiles, antique silver, artisanal ceramics. Much of it supports Indian artisans directly, luxury with a conscience.
Next door, for years, she ran a vibrant little bar called 1971, known for music and fruity cocktails, because of course she did. You do not leave this stretch of Ashwem with just a silver toe ring. You leave with a tan and the sudden urge to redesign your life.
Forged in London, perfected in Goa, her designs are a study in contrast:
The pieces feel lived-in, like they have already survived a thousand beach parties and love affairs. Twenty years ago her company, Jade Inc., produced embroidery and beading in India; today the jewelry she designs herself is set with stones bought in the markets of Jaipur.
"It's one of the world's greatest melting pots of stones and gems. It's wonderful to see what everyone's got in their pockets."Jade Jagger · on the Jaipur markets · AD India
For a decade she kept a celebrated open-air compound here, a rolling design project fusing grass-roots beach simplicity with curated, exotic furnishings: grass roofs, walls of woven palm fronds, nothing more than the local vernacular. It served as yoga retreat, photoshoot location, and private haven, and was featured in Architectural Digest India. The base began as a refuge for her daughters, Assisi and Amba, from the intensity of urban India between her Jaipur gem runs and Delhi workshops. "They've grown up now so we rent out the rooms and, like all parents of grown-up children, we've ended up with a bed and breakfast!" she joked to AD.
At the end of a day she clears her head with long jogs along the golden sand, the sea rolling out like an endless blue carpet on one side, the palm groves swallowing the beach on the other. "The goal was to create something that was going to be a simple pleasure, and very much an indoor-outdoors lifestyle," she explained. "I think it's wonderful to wake up in these grass-mat houses with the dappled light passing through the weave in the walls, the sense that you are in constant, immediate contact with your surroundings and the sound of the sea. We're keeping it simple, but at the same time there is a great beauty and charm in it."
She has since moved on from the compound, but the design footprint in India continues, including luxury apartments in Mumbai with the Lodha Group.
Jade began her career as a fine artist before turning to jewelry design in 1993. Global travels, sourcing stones and immersing herself in the craft's traditions, deepened her expertise in an art form that prizes uniqueness over mass production. As Creative Director for Asprey & Garrard, she helped open the house's stores in London, New York, Tokyo, and LA, carrying the crown jewelers into the 21st century with her best-selling collections before launching her own brand and taking back full creative freedom.
The Medicine Chest Collection links back to that original practice: gilded paintings that bring the mystical and therapeutic qualities of plants to life, a world where psychedelic flora and the shamanic power of medicine animals converge. Her petal mandalas build on it, combining the precision of egg tempera with the brilliance of 24 carat gold leaf. Inspired by the natural symmetry of petals and the symbolic spiral of the rose, each mandala captures the balance and order found in nature, offering a quiet moment to turn inward and connect with its still centre. The rose petal mandalas call us to spiral in.
"When I was a child I wanted to be a ballerina, but I soon turned to art and knew that I would end up in that world, somehow."Jade Jagger
