Diyanah Kamarudin’s journey to founding the luxury jewellery brand RUDIN is a compelling story of turning away from a conventional path to answer a personal calling. A philosophy graduate from a blue-collar family, she initially pursued a stable career in management consulting and tech. Yet, a lifelong passion for storytelling and a profound encounter with art history led her to forge her own way, creating a brand where every piece is steeped in narrative, research, and a deeply held conviction about the pursuit of beauty.
After graduating from Yale-NUS, Diyanah began a three-year stint in management consulting, a path she chose for its stability and prestige. The role was intellectually stimulating and instilled a discipline she carries with her today. A subsequent move to New York for a job at a tech scale-up, where she helped invest in and grow eyewear brands, proved to be the final catalyst. It was there she found the ‘fascinating intersection between what I love and the business side of things’—a space where analytical decision-making met the creative intuition that cannot be captured in an Excel model. This discovery was her calling.
Her love for the arts is deeply rooted in a childhood where books were a ‘solace and respite’. ‘My first love was fantasy stories,’ she says, citing Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as early influences. This fascination with world-building evolved into a love for filmmaking, from the French New Wave to the works of Andrei Tarkovsky. The final piece fell into place during a university trip to Rome. Immersed in Roman art history and archaeology, she experienced what Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino calls la grande bellezza—‘the great beauty’. ‘Just looking at all the architecture and paintings, it moved me to strive towards this higher beauty or truth,’ she reflects. ‘A part of me has been searching for that ever since.’ RUDIN is her answer to the question: ‘How can I make my everyday life a little bit more beautiful and a little bit more humane?’
This search is guided by a clear philosophy of life. ‘I've always greatly admired people who strive for excellence… simply because of the pursuit of excellence in itself,’ Diyanah explains. She speaks of the artisans who spent their lives building cathedrals they would never see completed, driven by care and craftsmanship. This ideal shapes her belief, informed by her liberal arts education, that true curiosity is a natural consequence of this pursuit.
The brand’s tagline, ‘passion is a verb’, is a modification of a line from an Anne Carson poem. For Diyanah, it means that desire and love are things that must be actively exercised and lived. This philosophy is the foundation of the community she hopes to build around RUDIN, one filled with people who share this active passion.
RUDIN’s collections are a direct manifestation of this intellectual and artistic rigour. The debut collection, launching in September 2025, is inspired by 16th-century Italian frescoes that mark the transition from the High Renaissance to the pre-Baroque period. ‘With this collection, I've taken a close look at five fresco paintings, all of which depict different Greek myths and characters,’ she says. Each design, based on myths like that of Cupid and Psyche or Galatea, is the result of extensive academic research. ‘We examined papers and considered various treatments to determine how to transform this fresco painting into a jewellery design… everything we do is so considerate.’
While the brand is built on a foundation of ethical practices—using only lab-grown diamonds and suppliers certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council—Diyanah has made a conscious choice not to market RUDIN primarily as a sustainable brand. ‘Being an ethical business is just part of the criteria you need to meet to get things going,’ she states firmly. She views these practices as central to being a ‘good human being and a good business owner’, not as a marketing tool to be brandished, thus avoiding any hint of performative virtue signalling.
Now working full-time on RUDIN, Diyanah approaches the launch with an experimental mindset. ‘I like to see it as an experiment that I need to validate certain assumptions with,’ she says, a perspective that keeps her growth-driven and optimistic. She operates with a small, globally distributed team of trusted friends, working from cafes and a large artist’s table at home. With the launch planned to coincide with the F1 calendar in Singapore, the final months are a whirlwind of finalising prototypes, photo shoots, and building a social media presence.
Her favourite part of the day? ‘When I realise that I did the best that I could,’ she says. For Diyanah, the goal is not about being the most productive businessperson, but about the consistent, passionate pursuit of an ideal.
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Want to learn more about Diyanah’s vision and the stories behind RUDIN’s debut collection? Read the full interview in LUMINOSITY, volume number 6.5 of INTERLUNAR's zine.
