After graduating from Seoul Arts High School and Ewha Womans University, Sunyoung Cha, the jewelry designer, majored in Jewelry Design & Metal Work in Central Saint Martins in London, UK.

Brought up in Seoul and London, the two cities in Asia and Europe, where contemporaries and traditional values are respected and compatible at the same time, Cha pursues a jewelry world where jewelry can be beautiful not only from a modern aesthetics but also from a traditional perspective. That is, she craves for a certain beauty and a value that can shine throughout ages and generations.

In 2008, Cha launched PANACHE, a jewelry brand that means ‘Plumage on a helmet’, showing her fine jewelry collection for the first time. The logic behind the name is the belief that there is a romantic harmony between the helmet made of cold and hard metal and the feather decorating the helmet softly, which resembles the fact that jewelry is made of rough metal but eventually maximizes the beauty and exquisiteness of a woman.
The contrast between opaque and transparent gems, the architectural and asymmetric structure that rejects typicality, and the delicate details of engraving and finishing are some of her signature techniques. Especially, the bold, modern, and unexpected design of mixing opaque jewels such as mother-of-pearl, coral, and turquoise with sparkling jewels such as diamonds is one of PANACHE's biggest attractions.
Now, giving a deep thought on ‘sustainability,’ a global topic these days, Cha focuses on bespoke design work (customer-tailored service that dismantles, reconstructs, and proposes jewelry that customers had with new materials and designs).