Events & AwardsOct 05, 2022
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And the Nominees for the 2023 Gem Awards Are …
Ten Thousand Things, independents Greenwich St. Jewelers and Zadok Jewelers, and National Jeweler’s Michelle Graff are among the nominees.
Independent retailers Greenwich St. Jewelers, left, and Houston’s Zadok Jewelers are among the 2023 Gem Award nominees in the category of Retail Excellence. See who else was nominated in the story below.
New York—Jewelers of America has announced the names of the designers, retailers, and journalists who have been nominated for a 2023 Gem Award.
Heading into its 21st year, the Gem Awards ceremony honors individuals and brands whose work raises the visibility and status of fine jewelry and watches.
The 2023 Gem Awards are scheduled for Friday, March 17, in New York City.
As previously announced, the event’s Lifetime Achievement award will be presented posthumously to Steven Kaiser, the watch industry leader who died unexpectedly earlier this year.
The winners in the three categories below—Jewelry Design, Retail Excellence, and Media Excellence—will be announced live at the event.
Read on to see who was nominated.
For more information on the event, visit the Gem Awards website.
Gem Award for Jewelry Design Nominees
Heading into its 21st year, the Gem Awards ceremony honors individuals and brands whose work raises the visibility and status of fine jewelry and watches.
The 2023 Gem Awards are scheduled for Friday, March 17, in New York City.
As previously announced, the event’s Lifetime Achievement award will be presented posthumously to Steven Kaiser, the watch industry leader who died unexpectedly earlier this year.
The winners in the three categories below—Jewelry Design, Retail Excellence, and Media Excellence—will be announced live at the event.
Read on to see who was nominated.
For more information on the event, visit the Gem Awards website.
Gem Award for Jewelry Design Nominees
Ron Anderson and David Rees, Ten Thousand Things. Self-taught jewelers Anderson and Rees founded Ten Thousand Things in 1991. Their modern heirlooms are inspired by shapes found in nature and hand-crafted in the brand’s downtown New York atelier. Recent collections centering around fine carved stones are the result of a collaboration with craftsmen in Jaipur, India, who take the designers’ wax carvings and recreate their shapes—some new, some from the archives. The collection has been stocked in some of the most prestigious stores in the world, as well as in the brand’s flagship Manhattan gallery.
Anita Ko, Anita Ko. Ko, whose eponymous jewelry brand is based in Los Angeles, has made her mark by creating collections that embody both day-to-day elegance and red carpet glam. She also creates bespoke and one-of-a-kind pieces that are sought after by top jewelry collectors, with her craftmanship and attention to detail earning the designer international praise. Ko’s jewelry has been worn and purchased by some of the most stylish and accomplished women in the world, including Michelle Obama, Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, Charlize Theron, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Scarlett Johansson.
Kirsty Stone, Retrouvaí. Toronto-born Stone is the founder and designer behind Los Angeles-based jewelry brand Retrouvaí, which is made entirely in downtown L.A. by a family-run team of master jewelers. Incorporating a lot of natural inlay, diamonds, and colored gemstones, much of her work is inspired by principles like fearlessness that are interpreted through the lens of the brand. Retrouvaí has become a favorite of tastemakers—Melinda Gates, Kate Bosworth, Gabrielle Union, and Blake Lively among them—and is stocked by some of the world’s most exclusive retailers.
Gem Award for Retail Excellence Nominees
Greenwich St. Jewelers. Second-generation co-owners Jennifer Gandia and Christina Gandia Gambale have turned New York City’s Greenwich St. Jewelers into a prominent destination for visionary jewelry designers and discerning clients. By combining their strengths and working together, they have grown sales exponentially and earned industry accolades, including recently being inducted into National Jeweler’s Retailer Hall of Fame. This year marked a new chapter in their family’s legacy with the opening of a flagship boutique in New York’s TriBeCa neighborhood.
Sotheby’s. Established in 1744, Sotheby’s promotes access to and ownership of exceptional art and luxury objects through auctions as well as private sales, e-commerce, and retail. Recent examples include “Brilliant & Black,” a selling exhibition featuring Black jewelry designers that’s now in its second year, and the special sale of work by female jewelry designers Sotheby’s Palm Beach held this past spring. Sotheby’s believes in the transformative power of art and culture and is committed to making industries more inclusive, sustainable, and collaborative.
Zadok Jewelers. Houston independent Zadok Jewelers was founded in 1976 by sixth-generation jeweler Dror Zadok and his wife, Helene Zadok. The addition of their sons Jonathan, Segev, and Gilad—all GIA-certified gemologists—created the seventh generation of Zadoks with industry experience. The store, which recently relocated to a 28,000-square-foot space in Post Oak Place, carries many watch and jewelry brands and is an authorized retailer for some of the biggest names in the business, earning it a reputation as Houston’s top fine jewelry destination.
Gem Award for Media Excellence Nominees
Amy Elliott. A lively presence in the editorial community for more than two decades, Elliott has held senior staff positions at The Knot, Brides, and Lucky magazines and served as the Engagement Rings Expert at About.com. Currently, Elliott writes stories about jewelry for an array of print and online media including JCK (where she is a contributing editor and the founder of its All That Glitters blog), The Zing Report, The New York Times, and 1st Dibs’ editorial platforms. Her byline has also appeared in DuJour, Martha Stewart Weddings, Wynn, Gotham, and Hamptons, among other publications.
Michelle Graff. Graff is the editor-in-chief of National Jeweler, a position she has held since 2013. As editor-in-chief, she both contributes to and manages the team of editors who write the articles for the publication’s website, NationalJeweler.com, and update its social media channels. She also oversees the publication’s two legacy print issues, The State of the Majors and the Retailer Hall of Fame. Graff serves on the board of advisors for the Black in Jewelry Coalition and is a member of the Women’s Jewelry Association NY Metro chapter’s Mentorship Committee.
Sarah Royce-Greensill. The Telegraph’s former Jewellery & Watches Editor, Royce-Greensill has spent the last decade immersed in the fascinating world of fine jewelry. Royce-Greensill edits the “Showcase” section of Vanity Fair On Jewellery, a prestigious anthology of everything new and noteworthy in jewelry, and is a contributor to Conde Nast Traveller, Tatler, Country Life, and Harrods Magazine, among other titles. Her career highlights include accompanying Bulgari Creative Director Lucia Silvestri on a gem-buying trip to Sri Lanka and traveling to New York City’s Diamond District to report on William Goldberg’s recipe for the perfect Ashoka diamond.
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