The third-generation jeweler shared how the North Carolina retailer is celebrating this milestone and the love story that started it all.
Meet JA New York’s New Designer Gallery
Eleven new faces will make their jewelry trade show debuts this weekend.

New York--At the upcoming JA New York Summer show, 10 brands will make their jewelry trade show debuts.
Exhibiting in the show’s New Designer Gallery, here’s a sneak peek of what this fresh crop of designers has to offer.
Brand: Victoria Young
Design Style: Sleek satin finishes accentuate the brand’s mature take on elegant stacking bands and drop earrings.
Don’t Miss: The geometric hoop earrings. Just when you thought you’d seen every variation of a hoop imaginable, Victoria Young has brought something new to the game.
Brand: May Came Home
Design Style: Vivid enamel in colors reminiscent of pop art are the signature element uniting May Came Home pendants and signet rings.
Interesting to Note: Designer Deborah Halperin boasts an impressive set of credentials, including degrees from FIT and Pratt, and stints at Robert Lee Morris and Tiffany & Co. She formerly had an eponymous jewelry line.
Brand: Susan Highsmith
Design Style: Intricate hand-carved details lend a special romanticism to Susan Highsmith’s engagement rings, earrings and pendants.
Fun Fact: The current Brooklynite and Illinois native is inspired by her father’s cousin, Richard Nickel, who devoted his life to preserving Chicago’s architecture.
Brand: Merzatta
Design Style: The art jewelry brand is focused on communicating natural textures through jewelry; think entire collections dedicated to capturing the porousness of pinecones or delicate laciness of sea fan coral.
Interesting to Note: The collection is designed by a husband-and-wife duo who met in art school.
Brand: Jill Kathleen Designs
Design Style: Jill Kathleen Designs is inspired by Baroque and Victorian ornamentation, but modernizes these influences for the 21st century woman.
Don’t Miss: Her sculptural Fairmined gold and fair trade gemstone and diamond engagement rings with their unique-yet-understated settings.
Brand: Hi June Parker
Design Style: Hi June Parker shines a spotlight on what might typically be ignored—negative spaces, accentuating them with contrasting pops of diamonds and gemstones.
Fun Fact: Her signature “Cross-Sections” motif was inspired by examining objects from different angles in appreciation of their structures not readily apparent to the eye.
Brand: Darsana
Design Style: Darsana is comprised of sentimental pieces meant to be passed down to future generations that incorporate pieces of antique mirror set in gold.
Fun Fact: The first piece of jewelry she made was a one of her signature mirror pendants for her daughter Lucy upon her high school graduation.
Brand: Aimee Kennedy
Design Style: Aimee Kennedy is a seller of alternative engagement rings, pairing
Don’t Miss: The brand’s stacking bands, a fun alternative to the solitaire bridal style.
Brand: Emily Kuvin
Design Style: Wearable, everyday-appropriate items constitute the core of Emily Kuvin’s creations, interlaced with subtle pops of color.
Don’t Miss: The brand’s signature starburst motif, which is organic in shape and bold in appearance.
Brand: Imperfect Grace
Design Style: Reminiscent of building blocks, many of Imperfect Grace’s geometric wares, such as the stacking rings, nestle into each other.
Perfect For: The self-purchaser who likes her jewelry fun but with a little edge courtesy of rhodium-plated sterling silver.
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