Now Khan’s focus is her jewelry, which retails for $225 to $1,500, and plays elements such as robust hardware, pearls and stones against soft tulle for a refined artfulness. Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Harrods carry Khan’s jewelry as well as her Athena dress, a slinky silk charmeuse style, or “the accessory to the necklace” to which it’s attached. “It’s tied here and here,” she explains, touching the nape of her neck and the small of her back. “And if you open the tie, it falls to the floor in a second flat.” According to the jeweler, the dress happened almost accidentally, when a buyer from Harrods, there to view Naeem’s collection, saw a piece of silk that Ranjana had draped on a form. “She said, ‘When can I buy this?’” says Khan. “And I said, ‘Monday.’ My wheels were already spinning.” Not that Khan is competing with her husband. The couple share office space but try not to mingle their businesses. “That’s how you ruin a marriage,” she quips.
Once the luxury market rebounds, Khan would like to start an even pricier jewelry line, along with eyewear inspired by her own collection of kooky reading glasses: some 60-odd vintage sunglass frames—Pucci, Balenciaga, Emmanuelle Khanh—fitted with tinted prescription lenses to hide magnified eyes. “I’ve never had a pair of granny glasses,” Khan says. “It’s just vanity.”
