Q&A: Monica Rich Kosann Looks Back on 20 Years

Monica Rich Kosann, the New York-based jewelry brand, is celebrating its 20th year in business.

The brand’s founder, Monica Rich Kosann, began as a photographer who told her clients’ stories through their portraits.

A lover of antiques, she began putting these images in lockets, which became the backbone of her brand.

After 20 years her business has grown to tell a story through every piece, from lockets to charms, bracelets, and rings.

Kosann sat down with National Jeweler to discuss how her photography inspired her locket designs, the secret she keeps in her favorite locket, the best business advice she’s ever received, and her favorite antique piece.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Natalie Francisco: When you were a little girl in New York City, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Monica Rich Kosann: I always wanted to be a fashion designer. I loved, loved clothing and shopping.

I used to have sketchbooks, and I used to always sketch all these different outfits and women in clothing and jewelry and hats.

NF: What sparked you to switch from professional portrait photography to jewelry design?

MRK: My roots are as a photographer and from the photography I got into jewelry because I was a storyteller.

Getting into jewelry was natural for me because I used to collect a lot of vintage lockets, powder compacts, and cigarette cases and put my clients’ photos in vintage pieces.

That’s how it started, because my clients wanted more and I would say, “That was a one-of-a-kind, a vintage piece.”

I started with the lockets and then I got into the medallions, charms, bracelets, necklaces, stacking rings, earrings, and everything.

Lockets are really the gateway to storytelling and that’s how I started.

I always say it’s about my customer’s story, not about my story. My jewelry is a vehicle for a woman to celebrate her milestones and wear her story.

NF: What do you mean when you say, “Lockets are the sexiest piece of jewelry a woman can wear. They hold her secrets.”?

MRK: I started with the lockets because I felt lockets were the sexiest piece of jewelry a women can wear because no one knows what’s in it unless you share it.

That’s what’s so cool about lockets; it’s not about being a grandma, it’s about holding your secrets, inspirations, memories, mantras, and manifestations.

NF: Lockets are the backbone of your brand. What is your favorite locket design from the past 20 years?

MRK: They’re all my babies, so I love all of them.

One of my first lockets was the “Gate” locket and it was inspired by a photo I took of a girl behind this beautiful iron gate, and everyone used to say to me, “Who is that? Where is she?”

It was so mysterious, and I have a special place in my heart for the “Gate” lockets.

NF: In your opinion, what is the best equipment to use to take a photo that’s going to be used in a locket?

MRK: Your iPhone is the best place because your life is on your camera roll.

We have The Locket Bar so you can fill in three easy steps—you choose your locket, you download the picture from your phone and fix it up and decide how you want it, then it prints out at your home computer.

NF: Is there any specific paper you think works best to print a photo for a locket?

MRK: Honestly, no. I think any paper is fine if it fits into your locket.

In our stores we use a nicer stock, but when I’m changing them at home, sometimes I just use paper since the locket has plastic over it.

I like to change mine a lot and I don’t take it too seriously.

NF: How does your jewelry empower its wearer?

MRK: My jewelry is like your daily armor. They are like tattoos for your day.

Every piece I design has a reason behind it and a special message for you as the wearer. 

For instance, today I am wearing a compass because I’m on a certain journey in my life now, so it’s celebrating my journey and it’s reminding me to stay on my path. 

Then I wear my fish rings every day. These are for perseverance, and they say that inside them. 

They are all about moving forward and not getting stuck in the past, no shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Everything means something, down to every charm I’m wearing.

Everything I design I want to empower and inspire my wearer, my customer. I want her to feel strong by wearing the pieces, so everything has to have a message for her.

I have the power when I wear it and when you wear it, it’s for you.

NF: I read that you love to go antiquing. Do you have a favorite antique, jewelry or otherwise?

MRK: Wherever I travel in the world, literally the first thing I do is go downstairs to the main desk and say, “Can you tell me where your flea markets are? And what days are they open? And what are the hours?”

I would say what has probably inspired an entire collection for me is Craquelure pottery from the Art Deco period of a fish.

That’s where the fish comes from. It never left my brain, and I never forgot it.

I have a lot of vintage jewelry too.

I’m wearing a vintage watch right now. I feel like this should not be in my hands because on the back it says, “to Bernie from Snooky.”

NF: How do you feel wearing pieces that you know people have gifted to each other?

MRK: I feel like I’m wearing someone else’s heirloom, but I love that it came with a story already.

I love working with vintage diamonds because they were in a piece that’s already lived a life.

NF: Do you have a favorite piece of jewelry, or one that you never take off?

MRK: I do. My “Finn” locket is one of them.

In it I have my favorite poem, which is by Robert Frost [and begins with,] “two roads diverged,” and the last line, “and I took the road less traveled by.”

That’s sort of a mantra that I live by.

I brought my daughters up to live by it—be your own person and be on the journey in the paths that are for you and that work for your life.

NF: I saw that Nicole Kidman wore a “Design Your Own” necklace from your brand with an “Anna” locket, “Mini Compass” pendant and your “Points North” drop earrings in her new movie, “Babygirl.” Do you have a favorite celebrity jewelry moment from the past 20 years?

MRK: The first celebrity to ever wear our locket was Katie Holmes. She had one of our lockets in silver and in gold.

I have no idea where she got it, and she was on the cover of People with it. She was on all those magazines where they photographed her and Tom Cruise like crazy.

She never took that locket off.

That was one of my first, “Oh my god, is this real?” moments. Someone else is wearing it who doesn’t know you, and just wore it because they love it.

NF: What was it like collaborating on a collection of tennis bracelets with sports legend Chris Evert?

MRK: She and I have become really good friends. She had two bouts of cancer and is still upbeat and positive. She’s a driven, focused woman.

When they approached us originally, I wasn’t sure because we’re a storytelling brand and her story is amazing. She invented the tennis bracelet and never had a say in a billion-dollar industry.

Who needs me necessarily for another diamond tennis bracelet, right?

I met with her and said, “Tell me what you remember [about] that day.”

She said, “I remember sweating profusely. I loved being feminine, so I had my diamond bracelet on, bows in my hair, pompoms on my socks.

“I remember the green of the court and the white lines. And I remember all of a sudden, my bracelet was gone.”

I said this is amazing, we’re going to make this collection called the “The Tennis Bracelet-CE. Born 1978. Finally Authentic.”

Every bracelet comes with a little emerald representing the court, an oval diamond representing her sweating profusely, and the other diamonds being the white lines.

We made it our own, it tells a story.

NF: As a designer, what has been the biggest change in the jewelry industry from your viewpoint over the last 20 years?

MRK: When I started, I was creating pieces that were personal for women and that would be their way of telling their stories and pieces that could become heirlooms in their family because it told their stories.

I feel now everyone is a storyteller. Everyone is doing things that tell stories.

When I started it wasn’t a thing, so I think that that’s probably the biggest change that I’ve seen over the years.

NF: What is the best business advice you’ve ever gotten, and did you take it?

MRK: I would say the best advice I ever got is to have a sense of humor.

You have to be able to make fun of yourself and make light of situations. 

My glass is always half full and that’s always been my way. 

I always remember that my dad, who was an entrepreneur himself said, “If you don’t have a sense of humor and you don’t laugh at things, then what is it all about?”

I think that’s why we’re still in this business after 20 years.

NF: What is the worst business advice you’ve ever gotten, and did you take it?

MRK: One of the worst things that anyone ever told me was that you have to be on-trend.

I thought, oh no, this is the antithesis of my business.

I do not design to be on-trend. I design to be timeless, classic, to be inspirational and empowering for women.

NF: Do you have any new store openings in the works, new collections, or collabs?

MRK: We are always doing new collaborations so stay tuned for that.

We just opened up our third freestanding store in Troy, Michigan, and we just redid our entire Bergdorf Goodman shop on the seventh floor.

We’re probably heading towards looking into more brick-and-mortar because we already have a very strong direct-to-consumer brand and we’re in over 130 wholesale doors.

NF: Where do you see your jewelry brand 20 years from now?

MRK: I see it continuing to grow, continuing to stay fresh and modern, continuing to have more stores all over the world.

I think that our pieces will continue to empower and inspire women and tell their stories in new, fresh, and modern ways.