WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Jewelry designer Irene Neuwirth has mastered the three Cs — casual luxury, conscious commerce and California dreaming.
The 2014 CFDA Swarovski Award winner (and CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist) has built a mini empire on her colorful baubles, which have earned a cult following over the last decade among women who love not just her aesthetic, but also her lifestyle.
Neuwirth, who started her business after sending a package of beaded necklaces with a magic-marker-written note to Barneys New York, is nothing if not personal. She spends 90 percent of the year on the road servicing a select group of less than 30 retailers worldwide, who have grown her business to the point where she can afford the ultimate retail experience — her first boutique at 8458 Melrose Place, which opened Saturday. The 1,850-square-foot shop, next to Isabel Marant on the coveted block that’s also home to The Row, Chloé and Oscar de la Renta, is the first fine-jewelry vendor on the street, and with items ranging from $700 to north of $200,000, the potential for per-square-foot sales is greater than for some bigger brands.
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Neuwirth designed nearly 300 new one-off pieces for the store, but don’t expect to see them lit up in shadowboxes with dark-suited security guards and white-gloved salespeople hovering nearby. In fact, the store looks more like an upscale Paris apartment, complete with a gourmet kitchen built into the rear of the retail space (with a window above the sink that looks out onto Marant’s courtyard). The jewelry is displayed in Regency-style vitrines up front, and sprinkled through the “dining room” and “living room” spaces via custom dioramas and cases built into bookshelves.
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Anyone who knows Neuwirth or has glimpsed her Instagram-happy life — snaps of her Labradoodle Teddy, picture-perfect house on the Venice, Calif. canals and international travels with her film-director boyfriend Phil Lord have caused many a New York designer and editor to dream about packing it in and heading west — will understand her smooth transition into retail. Design firm Commune created a custom space — from the pink onyx dining-room table to the shearling chairs to the oversize hippo and donkey — meant to feel like Neuwirth’s home (which she decorated herself). Like her idol Tony Duquette — a painting and a pair of sconces of his also decorate her store — Neuwirth enjoys mixing the not-necessarily-precious with the whimsical, bold and unexpected.
“I just want the whole experience of buying precious jewelry to be un-precious,” she said. “I want people to feel like they can touch things and hang out and not feel like they need to leave the store in two minutes if they’re not buying something. I walk into Cartier and I’m intimidated. And maybe that’s part of it, but I wanted to be the antithesis of that.”
Her laissez-faire attitude confused retailers at the beginning, but has since paid off. The company experienced 60 percent growth last year with the launch of a fragrance and a diamond collection at Barneys New York. “We’re not looking to have a monstrous business overnight. I think that was an adjustment for my [wholesale partners] at the beginning because they want to close the sale and I’m like, ‘If you sleep on it and dream about it, then you should have it.’ I’m way more laid-back, and we have women who collect hundreds of pieces of ours and some who only buy our jewelry.”
While most of her customers are comfortable adding a six-figure bauble to their collection each season, Neuwirth is also attuned to the aspirational nature of her brand. “Maybe you’ll get excited to have this piece in five years when you don’t have the money to get it now. That’s fine, too. I know all those people could eventually become customers. That’s why I’m offering $700 charms here and trying to make the range a little greater.”
Neuwirth has also branched out from her design signatures such as opals, chrysoprase, moonstone and quartz to include pearls, aquamarine, tanzanite, tourmaline, emerald and sapphire. What was once more delicate is now bolder and weightier. “It was so fun to be able to create for the store because I haven’t been able to work with a blank canvas. I always think, ‘What can [my retailers] sell?’ and for me, it’s not always my dream order, so I’m going wild and doing everything I’ve always wanted to do from scratch. I don’t need to have all the basics here. The other stores can work on selling that and we can have something that’s my dream store.”
Other touches inside include commissions from local artists such as Clare Crespo dioramas, Claire Oswalt watercolors, Aaron Morse hand mirrors and a painting by her mother Geraldine Neuwirth. Not surprisingly, Neuwirth has gotten a lot of knocks on the door asking who lives here — or better yet, is it a restaurant? “A couple came by the other day insisting that they had a reservation. When I told them it was probably at Fig & Olive next door, they were like, ‘OK, but can we still come here?’”
Neuwirth pulled out all the stops to fete the opening on Saturday. Two-hundred-plus guests flowed through the normally spacious boutique (the finer points of the Commune Design decor may have been lost on some, since guests like Elizabeth Banks, Busy Philipps, Abigail Spencer, Constance Zimmer, Judy Greer and Gillian Jacobs were packed like sardines, lined up wedding-reception-style to greet the designer and circulate.
“I’m going to get my Teddy t-shirt,” exclaimed Cameron Silver, of what was apparently a VIP gift for some, bearing the likeness of Neuwirth’s Labradoodle and unofficial mascot. After about an hour, handlers urged guests to vacate the store and set upon a green-lit, topiary-strewn pathway down Melrose Place to a verdant and roomy outdoor event space a few hundred yards away at Fig & Olive restaurant. T
“I wanted people to feel like they were being led on a jungle path,” said Neuwirth. “This is the way to do it,” commented designer William Anzevino. “Get everyone to look at the store first, then come to a place where you can just hang out and enjoy the company.”