Nearly three years after joining John Hardy as creative chair, Reed Krakoff has effectively reinvigorated the brand, ushering in the next chapter of its storied history.
Krakoff brought his vision to the Bali-inspired jewelry brand in 2022, following transformational periods at both Tiffany & Co. and Coach. As the president and executive creative director at Coach, Krakoff used his creative direction to transform the company from a New York leather goods brand to a $5 billion global powerhouse. Similarly, as the first chief artistic officer in Tiffany & Co.’s history, Krakoff is responsible for creating many of the brand’s popular collections.
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Overseeing the creative and artistic direction of the John Hardy business, he began the role with a focus on bringing together all aspects of the brand to tell the same story. As reported by WWD at the time of his appointment, Reed said that the magic was in the “alchemy of all of the things not just coming together, but each one [impacting] the other.”
Notably, John Hardy was founded in 1975 by its namesake designer and was later purchased by private equity fund L Catterton in 2014. Krakoff joined John Hardy as part of a broader arrangement with L Catterton, serving as a strategic advisor on select brands within their portfolio and future acquisitions.
Originally inspired by Indonesia and traditional Balinese crafts, the John Hardy brand was founded with the goal of preserving the island’s history of artisanal metalworking. The designs struck a chord with many and maintained stock in over 500 stores. However, when the founding designer departed from the company in 2007, the brand’s pulse began to fade.
Krakoff’s team has worked to evolve, change and improve upon the whole expression of the brand.
Similar to his role at Tiffany & Co., Krakoff touches all things that come in contact with the consumer for the John Hardy brand, including design, product, marketing and stores. Reed described his team as “orchestrating wherever the consumer came in contact with the brand.”
“Over the last almost three years, the brand has evolved holistically,” said Krakoff. “I like to look at it as the next chapter in the long history of John Hardy. We looked to bring it up to date and evolve it so that it tells a coherent story about where John Hardy is today and where it’s going.”
“Essentially when I started at John Hardy, I started thinking about what had made the brand great,” said Krakoff. “[Looking at] why people were so in love with it and how to recapture the newness that the brand had years ago. We looked at it holistically so that no matter how or where the consumer came in contact with the brand, they got the same message.”
It’s the idea of an updated jewelry brand that was rooted in this artisanal community in Bali and makes each product by hand, he said. Krakoff introduced a new design aesthetic that would modernize designs without losing the past.
Krakoff’s first collections for John Hardy began showing in March 2023 — with the objective of reinventing John Hardy through today’s cultural lens. At the time, he told WWD that John Hardy is “a really beloved brand that’s been a bit quiet over a bunch of years,” adding that the product had “too much sameness maybe” and was “ripe for evolution, particularly in sterling [silver].”
In part, this meant a broader, pulled-back view of Balinese culture as it relates to leisure time and surfing. The brand’s workshops and its team of artisans were protected, with all of John Hardy’s silver designs continuing to be manufactured in Bali and its gold pieces produced in Bangkok, Thailand.
Looking at the brand in 2025, Krakoff said that he continues to look at his vision in chapters.
“The main objective is to create excitement to recapture the essence of the brand, to recapture the uniqueness,” said Krakoff. “It’s [about] what made John Hardy stand out among all the other brands and to really amplify that not the way it was in the past but to reinvent it so that it’s relevant and exciting today.”
The brand’s sustainability efforts remain at the forefront of the company’s efforts. While sustainability has been a buzzword over the last decade, Krakoff told Fairchild Studio that what is different about John Hardy is that sustainability has been a part of the brand DNA since day one.
“The founder, John Hardy, has been and continues to be, very much involved in the environment, in sustainability, and essentially in being a good global citizen,” said Krakoff. “It’s something that he began long before it was trendy or a consumer talking point. It’s genuine, it’s authentic and it’s really embedded into the corporate culture.”
This mindset extends to the way the company does business, including the use of reclaimed metals, responsibly sourced diamonds and methods of producing products.
“It’s all done very organically and very naturally,” said Krakoff. “It’s really central to the essence of John Hardy feeling responsible and feeling that we are doing everything we can to do our part in terms of maintaining sustainability in our business every day.”
As the use of technology finds a solidified place in the conversation of craftsmanship today, Krakoff said that he sees the need for balance in craftsmanship and technology, calling it the “modern position of luxury.” Today, it’s not enough to have quality and craftsmanship or focus on technology and the ease it provides.
“The technology piece should almost be implied,” said Krakoff. “It’s something that you shouldn’t notice, but you should notice that it’s easy to purchase and understand what products are, understand the story behind the brand.”
Moreover, with so much innovation, Krakoff said he believes it is changing how people shop. People now have so many choices that they want something they don’t have and can only get from a particular brand. “They want something that checks a box in their wardrobe that they know they’re going to wear every day, or use or integrate into their life.”
Thinking about the future of the industry, Krakoff said, is “tricky.” It’s a difficult time to understand what will happen even tomorrow — let alone years down the road.
“I think what is happening is a consolidating of brands and ideas and I think the people and brands that will survive are the ones that are the most compelling but also the ones that are the most genuine and authentic.”
Authenticity, he said, is more important than ever. Consumers understand when something is made the way they respect and is relevant to their lifestyle. People have to fall in love with a product, so there is an emotional element always present.
“It’s a blend of how things are made, who is producing them, how they behave in the world. But first and foremost, it’s always about product. It’s about people falling in love with something and wanting to make it part of their wardrobe and their life. Much more so than in the past, it’s becoming about the brand you are buying from,” concluded Krakoff.
Produced for WWD by GABING
Directed & Edited by Gabriel Inghilterra
Second Camera: Daniel Cobos
Production Assistant: John Morales
Sound Engineer: Rubin Nizri