Jewelry

Gazza Ladra Jewelry: Gold Necklaces and Earrings Built in New York

Gazza Ladra jewelry was built in New York by Sunny Setton De Poortere, a former documentary film producer and tour manager. I picked the gold necklaces and earrings, from lizard earrings to a single shell earring.

State Property Jewelry

State Property is the Singaporean fine jewelry label started in 2015 by married couple Afzal Imram, trained in industrial design at the National University of Singapore, and Lin Ruiyin, trained in contemporary jewelry design at Central Saint Martins in London. They funded their first collection through commission work before launching properly, won Emerging Accessories Designer of the Year at the Singapore Fashion Awards in 2017, and landed their first major celebrity placement in 2018 when Nicole Kidman wore their earrings to a film premiere.

Mateo Jewelry

Matthew Harris, who goes by Mateo, started making jewelry for himself in Brooklyn in 2009, the story goes that a screw fell out of a wall while he was moving apartments and he turned it into a necklace. He is self-taught, and the label he eventually built stayed men's-only until 2014, when he launched a women's fine jewelry line after Rihanna was photographed wearing one of his pieces.

Keagan Ramsamy and Louise de Rothschild: Founders of Mazarin

Louise de Rothschild and Keagan Ramsamy, who met working in the jewelry department of the Paris auction house Pierre Bergé, founded Mazarin in 2022. They named the house after Cardinal Mazarin, the 17th-century minister whose collection of exceptional diamonds became legendary, and built their own version of that history on lab-grown diamonds and recycled gold rather than antique stock.

Jacquie Aiche Jewelry: 14K Gold Necklaces and Rings From LA

Jacquie Aiche grew up in Los Angeles making bead necklaces before she ever meant to start a company, and she launched her namesake jewelry line there in 2007 after years of selling pieces anonymously off her own body while running a clothing boutique on Sunset Plaza. The brand's break came from the finger bracelet she designed around 2009, an idea odd enough that it turned into a genuine signature worn by Beyoncé, Rihanna and the Hadid sisters, among others.

Nada Ghazal Jewelry

Nada Ghazal spent a decade in Dubai advertising, rising to senior art director at Impact BBDO, before returning to Beirut in 2003 to design jewelry instead. Her first collection, twenty five handmade pieces in eighteen karat gold wire called Organised Chaos, reportedly sold out within days of its December 2003 debut, and she opened her first Beirut boutique and atelier the following year.

Rachel Quinn Jewelry: From Painting and Sculpture to Gold

Rachel Quinn jewelry here is made in 14K yellow gold, with amazonite, sapphire and coral in pendants and earrings.

Bleecker and Prince: Leehe Segal's 14K Gold Jewelry

Leehe Segal launched Bleecker and Prince in New York in the early 2010s, naming it for two SoHo streets that run close but never meet. I went through its 14K gold hoops, pendants and bangles.

Fernando Jorge Jewelry

Fernando Jorge trained as a jewelry designer in São Paulo before moving to London in 2008 for a master's at Central Saint Martins, launching his own label out of that degree in 2010. His signature is sculptural, high-polish gold built around movement rather than stacked stones, made by artisans working across Brazil and Italy.

Suzanne Kalan Jewelry

Suzanne Kalan launched her eponymous jewelry line in Los Angeles in 1988, after years spent working in her father's downtown jewelry store and financing her start with a diamond bracelet given to her as a wedding gift. She is best known for the Fireworks setting, scattering baguette-cut diamonds and colored gemstones across a piece in a seemingly random pattern she developed after noticing loose baguettes spread across her desk.

Rainbow K

Kelia Toledano and Kelly Souied, childhood friends from the same street in Paris's 16th Arrondissement, founded Rainbow K in Paris in 2019 after both first built careers in finance and economics. Souied trained as a gemologist in Ramat Gan to study at the Israel Diamond Exchange, and pairs that technical eye with Toledano's Art Deco-leaning taste for antique jewelry, landing the brand somewhere between vintage revival and something more irreverent.

Sidney Garber Jewelry: The Chicago House Founded in 1946

Sidney Garber, the son of a watch repairman, opened his own jewelry shop in Chicago's Mallers Building in 1946 after returning from Air Force service in World War II. He built the house by traveling to European ateliers in Paris, Valenza and Idar-Oberstein to source stones and craftsmanship directly, a habit his daughter Brooke Garber Neidich continued after she inherited the company in 2008 and moved its center of gravity to include a New York boutique.

Goshwara Jewelry

Sweta Jain launched Goshwara in 2005 in New York, after a childhood spent traveling with her gemstone-dealer father to mines in Africa and later training in jewelry design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The label is built around color first: bold, often unexpected gemstone pairings designed and manufactured entirely in New York.

Tacit Jewelry by Michelle Fantaci

TACIT jewelry is the fine jewelry line from Michelle Fantaci, a New York jeweler in business under her own name since 2007. I go through the balloon-inspired pendants, earrings and bracelets, all made with 18k gold, ceramic-coated silver and traceable diamonds.

Graziela Jewelry

Graziela Kaufman grew up in Brazil around the country's gemstone-mining regions before founding her eponymous fine jewelry line, building direct relationships with miners she still works with today. What distinguishes the brand is that sourcing comes first, with two gemstone variants she identified even trademarked as Midnight Aquamarine and Graziela Tourmaline.

Silvia Furmanovich: Marquetry Jewelry in 18K Gold

Silvia Furmanovich is a São Paulo-raised jeweler known for marquetry, wood veneers cut into flowers and animals and set in gold. I look at her earrings and the crafts from Japan and India behind each collection.

Marlo Laz Jewelry

Jesse Marlo Lazowski grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, learning antique jewelry from her great-aunt before a trip to Jaipur, India in 2012 sent her to work directly with local artisans, and she launched Marlo Laz in New York in 2014 with a coin-inspired design called the Talisman. After studying at the Gemological Institute of America and apprenticing with a manufacturer in Manhattan's Diamond District, she built a line around symbols collected on her travels, hearts, eyes, elephants, horseshoes, that read as universal rather than tied to one culture.

DRU. Jewelry

Thea Miller left a twenty-year teaching career in 2016 to launch her Los Angeles jewelry label, DRU., full time. She builds every piece around symbols and short, pointed mantras meant to read as armor rather than decoration, and makes it all in Downtown Los Angeles.

Piranesi Jewelry

Abraham Hajibay started what became Piranesi in 1845, an Italian jewelry house that his family carried from Valenza and Milan all the way to Rockefeller Plaza in New York in 1976. The house is now on its fifth generation under Miriam Hajibay, who once collaborated on sketches with Elizabeth Taylor for a namesake collection, and it still centers on one-of-a-kind pieces built from fine gemstones and diamonds.

Elior Jewelry

Elior Mordechai started learning the jewelry trade at fourteen, interning summers at his family's wholesale diamond business before training in metalsmithing at the Fashion Institute of Technology and in design at the New York Jewelry Design Institute. His pieces lean maximalist and pattern-heavy, a sensibility he traces to his Persian heritage and a grandfather who dealt in Middle Eastern antiques.

EF Collection Jewelry

Emily Faith Strauss started EF Collection in Los Angeles in 2010, initially curating other designers' jewelry for trunk shows before she began designing her own pieces by 2013. The line took its name from her own initials and built a following on 14 karat gold and diamonds in stacking, huggie and charm formats that read as fine jewelry without the stiffness.

Engelbert Jewelry

Heribert Engelbert, a trained goldsmith, opened his jewelry business in Stockholm in 1920, and the company has stayed in family hands for four generations since. It survived a mid-century pivot into wedding and engagement jewelry set with diamonds at a time when Scandinavian bands were traditionally plain gold, plus a stint operating a Fifth Avenue office in New York in the 1960s under brothers Lars and Peter Engelbert.

Real Fine Studio: Jewelry by Stylist Eliza O'Connor

Eliza O'Connor, a Brisbane-born stylist, started what became Real Fine Studio in Los Angeles in 2021, making custom jewelry for styling clients who were tired of standard industry markups. It grew from Instagram-DM commissions into an heirloom-styled fine jewelry label, with early pieces picked up by working stylists and worn by a run of recognizable names within its first year.

Le Sundial Jewelry: Agate, Pearl and Jade From a Milan Label

Le Sundial jewelry was started in Milan by Silvia Dusci after a career in communications. I picked the agate, pearl and jade necklaces and earrings.