Gafla Jewellery

Gafla was founded in Dubai in 2010 by Hamad Bin Shaiban Al Mheiri and Abdulla Beljafla. The name comes from the Arabic word for caravan, reflecting the brand's stated intent to carry regional stories and cultural memory forward through jewelry design. Rather than working from generic luxury motifs, Gafla builds pieces around specific Emirati and Gulf references — family rituals, historic symbols and coastal customs translated into wearable objects. Its Bahar collection is the clearest example: worked in gold with diamonds, pearls and coral, it is built directly around the Arabian Gulf's pearl-diving economy, which was the region's principal livelihood before the discovery of oil and depended on freedivers working without equipment in Gulf waters for months at a time each season. By anchoring a fine-jewelry line to that specific maritime history rather than treating it as generic ornament, Gafla positions itself within a small group of contemporary Emirati houses using regional heritage as a design brief rather than a marketing gloss.