Fashion designer Vera Wang has long been known for her exquisite and romantic bridal gowns and edgy ready-to-wear. She has also dabbled in jewellery through a partnership with Jared Jewelers, which, until now, has focused on accessible bridal gems. Now both are elevating their game with the debut of a high-end range called Vera Wang x Jared Atelier collection. It’s a full-circle moment for the 75-year-old designer who began her career as an accessories director for Vogue. Roughly two decades ago, she also designed a fine jewellery line in partnership with Rosie Blue out of Antwerp and worked with one of JAR‘s top vendors out of Paris. So, despite Wang’s profile in fashion, she’s arguably had quite a resume in jewellery as well and her first high jewellery line certainly reflects that knowledge.
“It’s really about embracing jewellery in a creative way and in a personal way,” says Wang of her new high jewellery line with Jared. “You can wear jewellery any way you want; there are no rules.” She credits Jared’s president, Claudia Cividino, for giving her the freedom to express her style without restriction. “That kind of freedom is just a really great opportunity to express certain how I hear my own jewellery right in life,” she adds, noting that she herself is a longtime jewellery collector of serious pieces that run the gamut from Buccellati to David Webb. Cividino, a luxury veteran who has held CEO and executive roles everywhere from Loro Piana and Prada to Bally and Saint Laurent, has spearheaded elevating elements of Jared’s business since taking over as president in January 2023. Part of that plan is Jared Atelier, a luxury collection ranging in price from $9,000 to $200,000, which began before her tenure in 2022 but is aimed at targeting a more well-heeled clientele than the jeweller’s typical clientele who comes to the brand for its accessible gems across America, particularly in the Midwest.
Wang’s signature spin on Jared Atelier very much plays into her aesthetic both professionally and personally, highlighting the juxtaposition between soft femininity and edgy minimalism in a range of brooches, necklaces, earrings and cuff bracelets in ribbons, serpents, and strings set with white diamonds in either 18-karat or 14-karat white gold.
For the more sartorially daring man, the brooch is perfect for the increasingly hot trend of men wearing brooches with their tuxes. Meanwhile, the strand of diamonds can be worn a multitude of ways—draped around the neck to trail down a tuxedo shirt or, like Wang, tied around the neck with strands hanging down a dress. It could also be worn as a belt if you dared wear your diamonds around the waist. Wang’s bow cuff bracelet can also be worn as an arm bracelet, which is how she prefers to wear it. “They are bespoke, so they have to be fitted,” says Wang, noting that a client can have it sized to be worn any way they please.”
Ever the perfectionist and enduring creative, Wang says she prefers to work traditionally both in clothing and jewellery. “I know it sounds ridiculous in this day and age, but I didn’t use a CAD system,” says Wang referring to a computerised program for designing jewellery. Instead, she says she sketched every piece and oversaw each creation. In her bridal and ready-to-wear line, she hand drapes and pins everything to understand better how it should take shape.
The thoughtfulness about how the pieces might be worn may not be visible at first glance. Take the above bow earrings, which look fairly traditional in the way, but under Wang’s eye, they are worn as ear climbers for a hipper take on the ’80s resurgent trend.
The designer says she knows when she’s onto a good idea by the way the young people in her office react when she shows them a new design. “If they are playing around with it and ooo-ing and ahh-ing then I know it’s a good thing,” she says. But that is perhaps not giving herself enough credit. Having lived many lives, from a magazine editor to a fashion designer to a luxury lifestyle tycoon, at 75-years-old, she continues to reinvent herself and somehow look like she’s in her twenties as she enters her golden years. Like her diamonds, Wang herself seems to be mysteriously timeless.
Photography courtesy of Vera Wang x Jared Jewelers
