jewelry
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The Jewelry Party Learned to Use a Link
Stella & Dot built a jewelry business in other people's living rooms. The living room has shrunk to a phone screen, but the wager is the same: a recommendation from someone you know can make a necklace feel worth trying on.
Andra Mielnicki Knows Luxury Is a Feeling Before It Is a Product
From Avon and IndyCar pit lanes to fragrance launches and Cartier watch dinners, her career offers a practical lesson in making heritage feel present: find the brand's truth, then translate it for the room you are in.
The Watch Company That Became Fashion's Back-Room Engine
Fossil spent years trying to put a computer on the wrist. Its more revealing talent was there all along: turning somebody else's fashion language into a watch, then placing it almost everywhere.
Phillips
Phillips has spent 230 years learning how to make a room want something. Its modern trick is turning that theater into a focused global marketplace for art, design, watches and jewels - without trying to sell everything else.
Signet Jewelers
One Ohio company quietly owns Kay, Zales, Jared, Blue Nile and Banter - and rings up roughly one of every three engagement rings sold in America. Meet the $6.8 billion machine behind the moment you got down on one knee.
Altar'd State
Altar'd State is a Knoxville, Tennessee-based women's fashion and lifestyle retailer founded in 2009 by Aaron Walters and Brian Mason, built around a simple structural choice: give a fixed slice of revenue away every week rather than treat philanthropy as a marketing line item. Through its Mission Monday program, 10% of net proceeds from a designated day each week goes to a local nonprofit chosen by each individual store, a practice that has routed money to thousands of community organizations. The chain sells apparel, accessories, jewelry, gifts and home decor in boutique-style stores in malls and lifestyle centers across roughly 39 states, and online at altardstate.com. Altar'd State is the flagship of parent company Stand Out For Good, Inc., which also operates Arula (mid- and plus-size), Vow'd Weddings (bridal), Tullabee (baby and toddler) and AS Revival (activewear), plus a majority stake in Los Angeles furniture maker Lawson-Fenning. Reported annual revenue is in the $500-570 million range with roughly 2,700 employees.
ANINE BING
ANINE BING is a Los Angeles-based global fashion house founded in 2012 by Danish designer Anine Bing and her husband Nicolai Bing. Built out of a Silver Lake garage and scaled through a highly engaged social-media audience, the brand pairs Scandinavian minimalism with American energy to make timeless wardrobe essentials - leather jackets, denim, knitwear, jewelry and accessories - sold direct-to-consumer online and through a growing network of global retail stores. Backed by Index Ventures, Greycroft and Felix Capital, ANINE BING has grown into a nine-figure business operating dozens of stores worldwide.
Belk
Belk is a privately held American department store chain founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, North Carolina. Headquartered in Charlotte, it operates roughly 290 stores across about 16 Southeastern states plus belk.com, selling mid-priced national and private-label apparel, shoes, cosmetics, jewelry, accessories and home goods. Marketed under the tagline 'Modern. Southern. Style.,' Belk blends a 130-plus-year Southern retail heritage with an omnichannel model and a portfolio of exclusive private brands.
Cartier
Cartier is a French luxury jewellery and watchmaking maison founded in Paris in 1847 by Louis-François Cartier. Dubbed the 'Jeweller of Kings and King of Jewellers' by Edward VII, it built its reputation supplying royal courts and later defined 20th-century design with icons like the Tank watch, Santos, Trinity ring and Love bracelet. Now the flagship brand of Switzerland's Richemont group, Cartier operates more than 200 boutiques across roughly 125 countries and anchors Richemont's jewellery division, the largest and most profitable part of the group.
Christian Dior Couture
Christian Dior Couture is the Paris-based haute couture and luxury fashion maison founded in 1946 by Christian Dior. Owned by luxury group LVMH and led by Chairman and CEO Delphine Arnault, the house designs and retails haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather goods, footwear, jewelry, watches, fragrance and beauty through a global network of boutiques and e-commerce. Famous for the 1947 'New Look' that redefined post-war femininity, Dior remains one of the most recognized names in global luxury, blending French savoir-faire with contemporary creative direction now led by Jonathan Anderson.
Frances Valentine
Frances Valentine is a New York-based, vintage-inspired fashion label founded in 2016 by Kate Spade, Andy Spade, Elyce Arons and Paola Venturi - the same circle behind the original Kate Spade brand. It designs joyful, color-forward apparel, handbags, shoes, jewelry and accessories built to transcend trends, sold primarily direct-to-consumer online and through a small network of owned stores. The brand pairs quality craftsmanship with a playful, heritage-minded aesthetic drawn from mid-century style icons, aiming to make everyday dressing fun.
GLD (The GLD Shop)
GLD (The GLD Shop) is a Miami-based direct-to-consumer jewelry brand founded by Christian Johnston in 2015. It designs classic and custom chains, pendants, watches, and accessories that blend streetwear culture with fine-jewelry craftsmanship. Backed by officially licensed partnerships with the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA, and WNBA plus pop-culture collabs and celebrity fans, GLD has grown from a Pittsburgh basement into an international brand often called the 'Nike of men's jewelry.'
Kendra Scott
Kendra Scott is an Austin-based jewelry and lifestyle brand founded in 2002 that pairs accessible, colorful, customizable designs with a mission of 'Family, Fashion, and Philanthropy.' Built from a $500 startup into a company valued at more than $1 billion, it sells fashion, demi-fine and fine jewelry - plus watches, fragrance, eyewear and home goods - through 150-plus stores, a strong e-commerce channel and wholesale partners. Its signature Color Bar lets shoppers design their own pieces, and the company has given tens of millions of dollars to causes supporting women and youth.
Kering
Kering is a French global luxury group that owns and develops a portfolio of Houses in fashion, leather goods, jewelry and eyewear - including Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Boucheron, Pomellato, Qeelin and Ginori 1735, plus Kering Eyewear and Kering Beaute. Controlled by the Pinault family through holding company Artemis, Kering grew out of a lumber and retail company (PPR) and reoriented itself entirely toward luxury, positioning creativity and sustainability at the center of its strategy.
Michael Kors
Michael Kors is an American accessible-luxury fashion house founded in 1981 by designer Michael Kors. Known for jet-set American sportswear, its signature Saffiano-leather handbags, watches and ready-to-wear, the brand sells through hundreds of retail and outlet stores worldwide, wholesale partners and a growing e-commerce business. Now the anchor brand of parent Capri Holdings, Michael Kors accounts for roughly 70% of the group's revenue and targets style-conscious, aspirational consumers who want luxury design at a more attainable price point.
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta is a New York luxury fashion house founded in 1965 by the Dominican-American couturier of the same name. Known for feminine, occasion-driven evening wear and bridal gowns rooted in European couture craftsmanship, the brand designs ready-to-wear, accessories, handbags, jewelry, fragrances and home goods. It has dressed first ladies, celebrities and society clients for six decades and today operates as a private, family-run business led by CEO Alex Bolen, selling through boutiques, department stores and its own e-commerce.
Michelle Peterson
Michelle Peterson is the Chief Marketing Officer of Kendra Scott, the Austin-based fashion and fine jewelry brand. A chemical engineer turned marketer, she spent 18 years at General Mills before leading marketing at Life Time, Holiday Inn Express, and the juice brand Pressed. At Kendra Scott she unified the brand and performance teams into a single 'brand builder' organization, driving record direct-to-consumer traffic, customer growth and loyalty around a 'connection before transaction' philosophy. She was named a 2023 Adweek Marketing Vanguard.
Vanessa Wallace
Vanessa Wallace is the Chief Marketing Officer of GLD, the Miami-based lifestyle jewelry brand known for its ties to sport, music and street culture. A former CMO of Savage X Fenty and a 19-year Nike veteran who led Jordan Brand marketing in North America, Wallace built a career on storytelling, cultural relevance and championing overlooked communities. She joined GLD's board in August 2025 and stepped into the CMO seat in early 2026.
Anna Harman
Anna Harman is the co-founder and CEO of Studs, the New York-based ear-piercing and earrings brand she launched with Lisa Bubbers in November 2019. A former mutual-fund lawyer and Bridgewater Associates operator turned consumer-retail entrepreneur, Harman built Studs to fill the gap between Claire's and the tattoo parlor: a clean, needle-piercing studio paired with curated 'Earscapes' of affordable jewelry. The store was profitable in its first month and has since grown to dozens of locations nationwide, raising a $20M Series B in 2021 and roughly $25.6M in total funding.
Rowan
Rowan is a nurse-led ear piercing brand that applies clinical, medical-grade standards to a service long associated with mall kiosks and piercing guns. Founded by former Wall Street trader Louisa Serene Schneider, the company pairs licensed nurse piercers with hypoallergenic, nickel-free jewelry across 100+ studios nationwide, plus a direct-to-consumer e-commerce shop. Backed by VMG Partners and Kevin Durant's Thirty Five Ventures, Rowan turned a low-trust ritual into a safety-first, celebratory experience for customers of every age.
Studs
Studs is a New York-based ear piercing and earrings brand that pairs licensed, needle-based piercing studios with a large e-commerce and in-store catalog of flatback studs, hoops, huggies and clickers. Founded in 2019 by Anna Harman and Lisa Bubbers, the company coined the idea of 'Earscaping' - curating a personalized stack of piercings and jewelry - and positions itself as a modern, hygienic alternative to mall piercing-gun kiosks and tattoo-shop counters. It operates a fleet of profitable studios across the U.S. alongside a direct-to-consumer online store.
Louisa Schneider
Louisa Serene Schneider is the founder and CEO of Rowan, the ear-piercing company that hires registered nurses to do the piercing and runs its own medical advisory board. She started it from her attic in 2017 after a career in M&A and retail trading at Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan, and built it into a chain doing roughly $70-100 million a year with dozens of studios and hundreds of employees, more than half of them nurses.
francesca's®
francesca's® was an American women's fashion and lifestyle retailer known for its eclectic mix of clothing, jewelry, accessories and giftable items sold across hundreds of small boutiques and online at francescas.com. Founded in Houston in 1999, it grew from a single store into a national chain of more than 700 boutiques, went public on the Nasdaq in 2011, and built a loyal following of women shopping for affordable, trend-driven, occasion-ready style. After two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, the company wound down and closed its remaining locations in early 2026.