Ella Drake grew up in Mount Maunganui and came to jewellery through an unexpected path, an international modelling career across Europe where she noticed that while fashion changed with every season, the jewellery people wore did not. That observation, and a deep discomfort with the untraceable origins of mined diamonds, led her to found Monarc in 2017 from a workspace in London's Hatton Garden.
Monarc was built on a conviction that luxury and responsibility are not in tension. Every piece is made from 100% recycled precious metals and aboveground diamonds and gemstones, eliminating active mining entirely and working only with what is already in the world.
In 2022, Monarc became the first jewellery brand in New Zealand to achieve B Corp certification, not as a marketing exercise but as a confirmation of practices already long in place.
Each design balances contemporary form with the kind of timeless wearability that makes a piece feel as right in twenty years as it does the day it is first worn.
