Shaun Leane Returns with 12, His New Ultra-Exclusive Jewelry Brand

Shaun Leane is back in business, and that’s great news for jewelry collectors. After his namesake business went into administration in May 2024 and Leane departed that August, the designer took time to recalibrate. Now he’s returned with a far more exclusive offering called 12, creating commission-only jewelry limited to, as the name suggests, just a dozen pieces a year. The smaller scale makes room for something more personal, giving both artist and collector the time to create something genuinely special.

“For me, 12 is about creating these beautiful one-off pieces, these unique pieces where I they have time to breathe,” Leane tells Robb Report. “And when when when an art form has time to breathe, it can evolve.” The 12 annual commission will fall into three categories that reflect the breadth of his career: fine jewelry, ranging from geometric to Rococo and classical designs; the boundary-pushing sculptures for which he became famous; and objets d’art, including public artworks and other sculptural commissions.

At its debut, Leane is offering a glimpse of his rarefied creations. They include the above Dafodil ring, number two of this year’s 12, set with a removable jacket in platinum and diamonds in Leane’s signature thorn-like silhouette and centered on a citrine framed in white and cognac diamonds; the Barróg ring, number four of 12 in platinum set with a Kashmir sapphire and white diamonds; and the Let Go Let God ring, number five of 12, in platinum and enamel set with an indicolite tourmaline and sapphires.

With such a small number created each year, getting a piece from 12 likely won’t be easy, particularly given Leane’s profile and the client roster he has amassed over a 44-year career.

He began working in jewelry at just 14 years old after dropping out of school to become an apprentice. By 18 he was already creating classic pieces for Asprey, some of which were destined for the British royal family (decades later, in 2019 he would design Princess Beatrice’s engagement ring and, subsequently, her wedding band).

But it was his collaboration with Alexander McQueen, which began in the early ’90s, that would radically alter the trajectory of his career. Creating edgy body jewelry for the designer’s runway collections—most famously, the aluminum neck-to-waist Coiled Corset for The Overlook Autumn/Winter 1999-2000 collection—turned Leane into a boldfaced name.

“He gave me the confidence to explore,” Leane says.

Until that point, he had mostly been creating traditional pieces, even tiaras, for revered old jewelry houses. McQueen blew the doors open.

“And then we went on this amazing journey for 20 years, creating from silver earrings and headpieces to silver corsets, and and in that exploration, I found I found this passion,” he says. “My passion was the need to evolve, to grow, to question, to provoke, to challenge myself in medium and discipline, and create the new.”

He launched his namesake collection in 1999, beginning with a bespoke commission for avant-garde style icon and McQueen patron Isabella Blow. More than a quarter of a century later, he’s come full circle: One of his first pieces for 12, a silver collar, was designed specifically for Daphne Guinness, another member of McQueen’s famously creative orbit.

But like many creatives before him (McQueen included), the relentless toil of brand building eventually began to crowd out the creativity itself.

“Building a brand and running a brand takes all the fun out of it, and it takes on a whole new world,” Leane says.

With 12, he is going back to his roots. “I’ve gone back to my authentic self of what what I truly what I truly love about my craft or my industry,” he explains. “It’s the process of making…it’s the connection between me and the collector…and then the beautiful process of making it with a group of shared artisans from scratch to finish, from the stone cutter to the silversmith to the goldsmith to the box maker.”

Even the presentation is treated as part of the work. The boxes come in a dark-green lacquer, each fitted with a pure silver hallmarked plaque bearing the edition number and Leane’s signature. They are made by a single box maker in Greenwich, who spends months making each one. For Leane, that investment of time is part of the entire object. He considers time itself a material.

Time, however, has become something more personal. After his father’s passing following a four-year-long illness, Leane began reflecting on the pace at which he had been living and working. At one point, he says, he was putting in 120-hour weeks. Something had to give.

And as he began talking about 12, he realized his own reckoning with speed was hardly unique.

“When I came up with the concept for 12 year and a half ago, the more I discussed it with people—like fellow my peers, fellow artisans, people in other industries—it became very clear that there was actually a bigger point to it, and it was actually pointing out something quite important,” he says. “It’s just the speed that we are going.”

He’s referring to the relentless acceleration of nearly everything in the digital age, particularly social media. His mind naturally drifts to the fashion industry, where he says he’s saddened to see couture gowns that artisans have spent hundreds of hours upon hours creating, reduced to a swipe or a like before everyone moves on to the next thing.

He remembers a different rhythm. Björk’s iconic album cover for Homogenic—for which he created the brass neck rings worn by the singer, inspired by those worn by the women of the Kayan Lahwi tribe—was the product of four creative forces: Leane, photographer Nick Knight, McQueen and Björk herself. The image then lived on billboards for a year.

For all his reflections on loss, burnout, and a culture moving too quickly, Leane doesn’t come across as nostalgic or defeated. Quite the opposite. The first thing that becomes clear when speaking with him is his optimism and and infectious, almost unbridled passion for what comes next.

“There’s no light without shadows,” he says. “It’s the balance.”