Garrard's Wings Rising campaign, created by Who Wot Why with photography by Matt Holyoak, marks 20 years of the Wings motif across the UK, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
ARCHIVEGarrard Wings Rising Redefines Luxury Jewellery for a New Era
Garrard's Wings Rising campaign is a 2023 luxury jewellery initiative celebrating 20 years of the brand's Wings design motif, created by Who Wot Why and photographed by Matt Holyoak, running across the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates through online film, digital, social, in-store and out-of-home channels.
Garrard is the longest-serving jeweller in the world, founded in London in 1735. The brand served as the first official crown jeweller for the United Kingdom, supplying jewels for Queen Victoria and holding responsibility for the upkeep of the British crown jewels from 1843 to 2007. That depth of royal heritage gives Wings Rising a weight few luxury jewellery campaigns can claim, anchoring an aspirational message of personal empowerment in centuries of craft and institutional trust.
Wings Rising launched in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2023 and in the Middle East — specifically Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — on 27 September 2023, as reported by LBBOnline. The simultaneous near-dual launch reflects Garrard's deliberate strategy to speak to two distinct but equally affluent consumer audiences: the heritage-minded British buyer and the younger, style-forward luxury consumer across the Gulf. Who Wot Why won the Garrard account through a five-way pitch, developing not only the creative execution but the collection name and overarching platform — a relatively rare contribution from an agency at pitch stage.
The campaign's central idea, to live and fly by one's own wings, reframes the Wings motif from a decorative design signature into a symbol of independence, inner strength and self-determination. The protagonist of the campaign films appears in iconic wing poses high above the London skyline, restoring the capital to the visual heart of Garrard's identity and underlining the brand's deep roots in the city. The Wings Rising collection was conceived by Garrard's all-female design team, lending the campaign's empowerment narrative an authenticity that extends beyond copywriting into the creative process itself. The Clapboard Score for Wings Rising is 64 out of 100.
ARCHIVEGarrard's Wings Rising campaign represents a deliberate repositioning away from royal drama and celebrity association toward symbolic self-empowerment. The strategic pivot is well-timed. Global luxury jewellery sales grew approximately five to six percent in 2023, according to Bain and Company, and branded jewellery represented approximately forty percent of all jewellery sales in 2022 — the lowest branded penetration among major luxury categories, according to Morgan Stanley. That gap between branded and unbranded share signals meaningful room for established houses to convert culturally engaged consumers into loyal brand buyers, particularly in markets where personal spending on fine jewellery is accelerating.
In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, luxury expenditure has grown consistently as younger demographics with significant disposable income seek brands that reflect personal values rather than simply inherited status. The United Kingdom, meanwhile, remains one of the most competitive fine jewellery markets in the world, where Garrard competes directly with Cartier — which reported more than ten billion euros in fiscal 2023 sales, representing approximately forty-two percent of leading branded luxury jewellery, according to Morgan Stanley — and with Tiffany and Co., which has aggressively expanded its cultural visibility since its acquisition by LVMH. Wings Rising distinguishes Garrard from both rivals by leaning into a heritage narrative that neither Cartier nor Tiffany can replicate in the British context: crown jewels, royal warrants and nearly three centuries of London craft.
The insight driving the creative strategy is that jewellery purchasing has shifted from gifting to self-purchase. Wearing statement pieces has become an act of self-expression rather than reception, and Who Wot Why built the entire Wings Rising platform around that behavioural shift. Sara Prentice, Creative Director at Garrard, articulated the position directly: "Jewellery is one of the most joyful forms of self-expression, and Wings Rising embodies that truth," as quoted by Garrard. The campaign targets consumers who buy jewellery for themselves across all three markets — the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — with messaging calibrated to resonate across different cultural contexts while maintaining a unified creative language.
Matt Holyoak photographed the Wings Rising campaign. Holyoak is a celebrity and portrait photographer whose client list, as documented by LBBOnline, includes Jessica Chastain, Jodie Comer, Helena Bonham Carter and members of the British Royal Family — making him a considered and deliberate choice for a brand whose own history is intertwined with the Royal Family.
The visual strategy places the campaign's protagonist in dramatic wing poses high above the London skyline, as documented by Garrard. This choice is compositionally and symbolically precise. London is not merely a backdrop; it is an argument. By staging the imagery above the city where Garrard has operated since 1735, the campaign asserts geographic and cultural authority in a way that a studio shoot or neutral setting could not. The cityscape grounds the Wings Rising motif in place and history, while the elevated perspective — literally above the skyline — reinforces the campaign's theme of rising, freedom and perspective.
The campaign runs across online film, digital, social, in-store and out-of-home channels, and each touchpoint is designed to carry the same thematic weight: inner strength, independence and free spirit. The multi-channel approach ensures that the visual language of Wings Rising reaches consumers in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at every point of the purchase journey, from ambient out-of-home impression to in-store conversion. The transition from the brand's previous 2022 to 2023 Blaze and Rule creative platform, noted by LBBOnline, marks a clear tonal shift: where earlier work leaned on royal drama and celebrity power, Wings Rising transfers agency from the brand to the wearer. Sara Prentice, Creative Director at Garrard, described the collection as "the boldest representation of the Wings motif yet," as quoted by Garrard, a statement that applies as much to the visual ambition of Holyoak's photography as to the jewellery design itself. Production credits beyond Holyoak's photography are not publicly documented at this time.
No independently verified performance data for the Wings Rising campaign — such as reach figures, conversion rates or sales uplift — is publicly available at the time of publication. The campaign's effectiveness can, however, be assessed through the strength of its structural choices and the market context in which it operates.
Wings Rising earns a Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100, reflecting a campaign that executes its strategic premise with conviction but stops short of the kind of cultural disruption that would place it at the upper tier of luxury jewellery advertising. The score acknowledges the campaign's meaningful strengths: a clear and defensible insight about the shift toward self-purchase jewellery, a photographer whose credentials are directly relevant to both the brand's royal heritage and its contemporary cultural ambitions, a dual-market launch across the United Kingdom and the Middle East that demonstrates genuine geographic thinking, and a creative platform developed by Who Wot Why that extends from the collection name itself through every channel touchpoint.
The decision to launch in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates within two days of the United Kingdom launch, as reported by LBBOnline, signals that Garrard treats these as primary rather than secondary markets — a commercially sound approach given the luxury expenditure patterns of Gulf consumers. Fine jewellery represented more than sixty percent of the total jewellery market in 2023, according to Bain and Company, and in markets where branded jewellery remains underpenetrated relative to its potential, a campaign anchored in a twenty-year design legacy and shot with the authority of Matt Holyoak's lens carries structural persuasive weight. The all-female design team behind the Wings Rising collection also provides an earned narrative layer that reinforces the campaign's empowerment positioning without relying on assertion alone.
Wings Rising is Garrard's 2023 luxury jewellery campaign celebrating twenty years of the brand's Wings design motif. Created by Who Wot Why and photographed by Matt Holyoak, it launched in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, positioning the Wings motif as a symbol of independence, inner strength and self-expression.
Who Wot Why created Wings Rising after winning Garrard's account through a five-way pitch. The agency developed both the collection name and the overarching creative platform. Matt Holyoak photographed the campaign, with the Wings Rising collection itself conceived by Garrard's all-female design team under Creative Director Sara Prentice.
Garrard launched Wings Rising in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on 27 September 2023, two days after the United Kingdom launch. This reflects the brand's recognition of the Gulf as a primary luxury jewellery market, where younger, affluent consumers increasingly purchase fine jewellery as a form of personal self-expression rather than a gifted item.
Matt Holyoak is a celebrity and portrait photographer whose clients include Jessica Chastain, Jodie Comer, Helena Bonham Carter and the British Royal Family, as reported by LBBOnline. His appointment was strategically precise for Garrard, a brand whose own history is directly connected to the Royal Family and British crown jewels, lending the campaign institutional credibility.
Wings Rising positions Garrard's nearly three-century London heritage as an active, contemporary asset. Founded in 1735, Garrard served as the United Kingdom's first official crown jeweller. The campaign's imagery above the London skyline and its twenty-year Wings motif anniversary anchor the empowerment narrative in a lineage that competitors including Cartier and Tiffany cannot replicate in a British context.
Wings Rising receives a Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100. The score reflects strong strategic clarity, a well-matched photographer in Matt Holyoak, and a genuine dual-market launch across the United Kingdom and the Middle East, while stopping short of the cultural disruption that would place it among the most outstanding luxury jewellery campaigns of 2023.
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