Accessories

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.

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.

Kentshire

Benson Imberman opened the United States Silver Company in midtown Manhattan in 1940, and three generations of his family have run what is now Kentshire ever since. The business pivoted from silver to English and European antique furniture and, by the 1980s, to the fine antique and estate jewelry that eventually became its focus, sold through a standing boutique inside Bergdorf Goodman since 1988.

Mason & Books: Jamie Books' 14K Gold and Diamond Jewelry

Mason & Books is a New York jewelry label that designer Jamie Books launched in 2021 after roughly fifteen years in luxury accessories. I look at the 14K gold, diamond and pearl pieces, where bows and bugs inspired by her kids sit beside the craft.

Sophie Thoerner and Vice Versa: The Jewelry Brand She Co-Founded

Sophie Thoerner co-founded Vice Versa with Hannah Traulsen, a Barnard alum with a background in sourcing and production. Thoerner is a Savannah College of Art and Design jewelry graduate, and I go through the 14K yellow gold pieces.

Mindi Mond: New York Fine Jewelry Founded in 2009

Mindi Mond founded her eponymous fine jewelry line in New York in 2009, after a career as a fashion merchandiser in the city's garment district. She started by buying antique and estate gems and finished pieces specifically to take them apart and rework them into new designs, a habit of repurposing that became the brand's working method before she launched her original Clarity Collection in 2012.

SHAY Jewelry: Link Bracelets to Gold and Diamond Pieces

SHAY jewelry started as a woven chain link bracelet that Tanaz Shayan made for herself in high school. I follow it from costume jewelry into 18K yellow gold and diamond rings, earrings and necklaces.

Haute Victoire

Yasmina Benazzou spent over two decades as global creative director at the carpet house Tai Ping before signing up for an evening jewelry-making class in New York at 45, which led her to found Haute Victoire. The name means high victory in French, chosen because launching the label felt like a personal win after years spent designing something else entirely, and her debut collections were worked in 18k gold set with Tahitian pearls, Persian turquoise and stones pulled from flea-market brooches.

Tabayer Oera Diamond Rings and Jewelry in 18K Gold

The Tabayer 18kt yellow gold Oera diamond ring comes from Oera, the collection that launched the brand in 2021. I go through the Oera, Loop and Signet pieces and the Miami founder's story.

Lié Studio: Copenhagen Jewelry and Bags From Twin Sisters

Lié Studio was founded in Copenhagen in November 2021 by twin sisters Amalie and Cecilie Moosgaard, former runway models who had walked for Gucci, Valentino and Prada before building their own label with business partners at Brand Institute. The specific thing that makes the brand what it is: a small set of core minimalist gold and silver jewelry pieces, designed by two people who by their own account were not natural jewelry buyers before they started making it themselves.

Jamie Wolf Jewelry: A Former Ballet Dancer's 18K Gold Designs

Jamie Wolf grew up on Manhattan's Upper West Side and spent about a decade dancing professionally with the New York City Ballet before she left the stage to design jewelry full time, a hobby she had kept up during off-seasons since around 2001. She works mainly in 18k gold set with precious and semi-precious stones, made in New York City, on the belief that femininity is timeless and beauty lives in the finest details.

Fiametta: Lab-Grown Diamond Jewelry by Merill Hollander

Merill Hollander founded Fiametta in New York in 2023 after a career that started at Bloomingdale's buying desk and ran through a Wharton MBA. The label works exclusively in lab-grown diamonds and frames itself as a rewrite of fine jewelry's rulebook, drawing openly on Hollander's experience as a queer woman deciding which traditions to keep and which to drop.

Janessa Leone

Janessa Leone launched her eponymous hat line in Los Angeles in 2013, funded with personal savings from years of nannying while she considered law school. The origin story is oddly literal: on a trip to Paris she bought a vintage men's hat, opened the sweatband, and found the milliner's surname stitched inside, the same as her own.

Tom Ford

Tom Ford trained as an architect at Parsons School of Design before joining Gucci in 1990, a house then weighed down by family disputes and near insolvency, and rose to Creative Director by 1994, driving sales up roughly ninety percent within two years. He left Gucci Group in 2004 after a contract dispute and launched his own label in 2005, opening a Madison Avenue flagship in 2007 built around the same architectural rigor and unapologetic glamour he brought to Gucci.

Pucci Dresses: Prints, Swim and Sunglasses From the House

Pucci dresses come from the house Emilio Pucci, a Florentine aristocrat, founded in 1947 after a photograph of his ski outfit ran in Harper's Bazaar. I go through the dresses, shirting, swim and sunglasses.

Eden Presley

Gwen Myers started making jewelry in New York as a way to fill the hours at home with three young children, and named the label after two of them, Eden and Presley. What began as pieces for herself and friends grew into informal jewelry parties before it turned into an actual wholesale business, hand-set gemstones in 14k gold with a bold, maximalist streak.

Ten Thousand Things Jewelry: 18K Gold Pieces From a New York Duo

Ron Anderson and David Rees, both self-taught jewelers who came out of fashion retail rather than formal design school, founded Ten Thousand Things in New York in 1991, taking their name from a line in the Tao Te Ching. The label helped bring personal, wearable fine jewelry back into fashion at a moment when magazines were dominated by oversized costume pieces, a shift cemented early when Kate Moss wore its small cross pearl earrings in her first Calvin Klein campaign in 1992. Here are some of my personal favorite items from the collection...

Ben-Amun

Isaac Manevitz, an Egyptian-born designer who had worked for costume houses like Trifari, started Ben-Amun in New York in 1980, naming it for his eldest son and the pharaoh Tutankhamun. The brand never pretended to be fine jewelry: it built its name on hand-finished pieces in electroplated gold, Czech glass and Majorca pearls, made to photograph and move like the real thing, which is exactly what got a Ben-Amun cuff onto Jackie Kennedy Onassis's wrist in 1989.

Yvonne Leon Jewelry: Gold and Gemstone Pieces Made in Paris

Yvonne Leon grew up around a family of jewelers in Paris, spending childhood afternoons at her parents' vintage jewelry shop before studying at the fashion school Esmod and working as a stylist and editorial assistant, including time at Vogue Paris. She launched her own fine jewelry line in the early 2010s, building it around the dessous d'oreille, an ear jacket earring she reworked from a piece her father originally designed for her mother, and expanded it into a bestiary of animal charms sourced from her own flea market habit. A brand of my wishlist dreams

Lizzie Fortunato

Twin sisters Lizzie and Kathryn Fortunato started making jewelry as a Duke University side hustle in the early 2000s, then founded Lizzie Fortunato in 2008 from a Lower East Side apartment on the strength of a ten-thousand-dollar bonus check Kathryn handed her sister with instructions to follow her dreams.

Black Suede Studio Shoes: Montreal Loafers, Boots and Mules

Kris Avakian launched Black Suede Studio out of Montreal in 2018, after years spent inside his family's accessories manufacturing business, including a stint running quality control at their factory in Qingdao, China. The label's whole premise was closing a gap he saw in footwear: shoes with real quality and comfort at a level nobody else was hitting, a conviction strong enough that he later moved production to Brazil to get the craftsmanship right.

Khaite Shoes, Bags and Accessories: Leather Pumps and Sandals

Catherine Holstein launched Khaite in New York in 2016 with backing from Adam Pritzker's Assembled Brands, after a first eponymous label she started as a Parsons student closed in the 2008 financial crisis and a five-year run designing for Gap, Vera Wang and The Elder Statesman taught her the parts of the business she'd missed the first time. The label opened on denim and cashmere knitwear before adding runway shows in 2019 and an in-house bags and footwear line the same season, and Holstein still designs under a name modeled on the Greek word for long, flowing hair.

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.

Gucci Card Holder for Women: Card Cases, Wallets and Chains

A Gucci card holder for women can be a slim leather card case, a canvas Flora holder or a GG Marmont card case wallet. I sorted the edit by how you carry, from card cases to wallets to wallets on a chain.