She was a refugee-turned-supermodel-turned-fashion designer and now Alek Wek (above, wearing her creation, Rose Waterfalls) has another title to add to her resume: jewellery designer.

The 32-year-old, who fled Sudan in 1991 because of the civil war and was talent scouted at a London street fair in 1995 to be a model, was recently invited by diamond company De Beers to design jewellery.

Her brief was to interpret the word 'precious'.

Wek, who has channelled her passion for painting, art and design to launch a line of couture handbags and fashion accessories, came up with Rose Waterfalls - a combination of three diamond necklaces adorned with 16 rose motifs. Each rose motif has a diamond set in the middle. In all, the necklace contains almost 20,000 diamonds.

The $543,788 necklace is on display at Ion Orchard Atrium from today till Sunday, as part of Lee Hwa Jewellery's Diamond Odyssey exhibition, which showcases $20-million worth of jewellery from six countries.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.