Mother+ Meets… Nimisha Mandaliya, Founder & Creative Director of NIMMISHA
Welcome to Mother+ Meets… our interview series spotlighting women building brilliant things alongside family life. This week, we meet Nimisha, founder and creative director of NIMMISHA, the London-based jewellery brand she launched in October 2025. Drawing on four generations of Indian goldsmithing heritage, she has created a contemporary collection rooted in craftsmanship, symbolism and personal meaning.
We spoke to the mother of twin boys about finding her own identity within a family legacy, building a business on her terms and learning that balance doesn't always mean doing everything equally.
Tell us a little about what you do and what led you here.
I'm the founder and creative director of NIMMISHA, a London-based jewellery brand rooted in meaning, symbolism and modern design. Jewellery has always been part of my world. I grew up in a family of goldsmiths in India, with a heritage spanning four generations, surrounded by gemstones, craftsmanship and conversations about jewellery.
But interestingly, I didn't immediately follow that path. I built my own life and career first, became a mother, moved to London and eventually found myself drawn back to jewellery, but wanting to approach it in a completely different way.
NIMMISHA came from that intersection: my heritage, the woman I had become and my desire to create jewellery that feels relevant to how women live today.
What does a typical day look like for you, if there is such a thing?
There really isn't one! My mornings usually start with getting my twin boys ready and out the door for school, and then I switch into NIMMISHA mode. One day I might be reviewing a new design or gemstone; another, I'm discussing a campaign, speaking with PR, planning content, looking at sales, working on the website or preparing for an event.
I'm involved in almost every part of the business, which can be chaotic, but I also love that no two days feel the same. Then the school day ends and I switch back into mum mode. The two worlds overlap constantly, and I've stopped trying to create a perfect separation between them.
Jewellery has been part of your family for four generations, but you've been clear that NIMMISHA wasn't about simply continuing the family business. How did you find the confidence to take that heritage and turn it into something that felt entirely your own?
I think the confidence actually came from stepping away from it first. Growing up around jewellery gave me an incredible foundation, but I needed to understand who I was outside of that legacy before I could come back to it and create something of my own.
When I started NIMMISHA, I was very conscious that I didn't want to recreate traditional Indian jewellery or simply modernise what my family had already done. I wanted to take the things I had inherited, an understanding of gemstones, craftsmanship, symbolism and the emotional relationship we have with jewellery, and interpret them through my own lens.
London has influenced that enormously. NIMMISHA sits somewhere between the worlds that have shaped me, my Indian heritage and my life in London, without needing to belong entirely to either.
How has motherhood shaped how you work or how you define success?
Motherhood completely changed my definition of success. Before children, success can feel very linear. You achieve something, then move on to the next thing. Motherhood made me much more aware of time and what it costs to give your attention to something.
Building NIMMISHA while raising my twin boys has made me incredibly ambitious, but also very conscious that success cannot only be measured by how big the business becomes.
I want my children to see their mother build something she believes in, take risks and work hard for it. But I also want to be present in their lives. I don't always get that balance right, and I think accepting that has been important too.
What do you wish people understood about building something from scratch?
How much of it nobody sees. People see the launch, the campaign, the beautiful photographs, the press feature or the event. They don't necessarily see the hundreds of decisions behind each one, the mistakes, the things that don't work, the financial pressure or the moments when you question yourself.
When you build something from scratch, especially something deeply personal, you are constantly making decisions without knowing whether they are the right ones. I think resilience is much less glamorous than people imagine. Most of the time, it simply means waking up the next morning and continuing.
Where do you find your energy, and what drains it?
Ideas give me energy. Designing something new, seeing a concept come to life, meeting interesting women and having conversations that lead somewhere unexpected.
I also get a huge amount of energy from seeing someone genuinely connect with a piece of NIMMISHA jewellery. That still feels incredibly special. What drains me is unnecessary noise: too many opinions, too many meetings and overthinking things that, instinctively, I probably already know the answer to. I'm learning to protect my energy a little more and trust my instincts faster.
What's one decision that changed everything?
Deciding to actually launch. There is always another reason to wait. The collection could be better, the website could be better, or you could have more money, more followers or more experience. At some point, I realised that if I waited until I felt completely ready, NIMMISHA might never exist.
Launching meant allowing something incredibly personal to leave my hands and letting other people decide how they felt about it. That was terrifying, but it changed everything.
As ideas around luxury evolve, do you think the future of fine jewellery will be less about what a piece costs or signals, and more about craftsmanship, provenance and the personal meaning it carries?
I do, and I think we're already seeing that shift. For a long time, luxury was very closely connected to signalling: what something cost, what name was attached to it or what owning it said about you. I think women are becoming much more interested in why something deserves a place in their lives.
Craftsmanship and provenance matter, but meaning does too. Jewellery is particularly emotional because we wear it against our bodies, sometimes every day, and often associate it with people, milestones and memories. For me, modern luxury is something beautifully made that feels personal enough that you would still value it even if nobody else knew what it was.
What does balance mean to you right now?
Not trying to do everything perfectly at the same time. There are weeks when NIMMISHA needs more of me, and there are moments when my family needs more of me. Balance, for me, is accepting that it moves.
I used to think balance meant dividing everything equally. Now I think it's more about being present wherever I am and recognising when something has been neglected for too long. I'm still learning.
And finally, what's one thing you'd tell other women who are trying to do both: raise a family and a business?
Don't wait for life to become less busy before you start, because it probably won't. You will miss things. You will feel guilty sometimes. There will be days when you feel like you're doing both badly, and other days when somehow everything works.
Build your support system, ask for help and stop believing that doing it all means doing it all yourself. Most importantly, let your children see you trying. There is something powerful in them watching you build a life that includes your own dreams too.
QUICK FIRE ROUND
Current bedside book? The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. I love books that bring history to life through a woman's perspective.
Go-to podcast or playlist when you need a boost? Empire for my world history fix, and on other days Parenting & You with Dr Shefali or Aspire by Emma Grede. It really depends on which part of my brain needs feeding that day!
Favourite place to eat with kids, and without? With the kids, PizzaExpress, always a winner. Without them, I'm much harder to pin down! Benares, Gymkhana or Jacuzzi, depending on the mood.
A mantra, quote or reminder you come back to? "Trust the timing."
It's something I come back to both personally and professionally. Building NIMMISHA has taught me that not everything happens when you want it to, but often the timing makes sense later.