LOS ANGELES — Melrose Place has another jewel on its block here — Me&Ro.
The 1,200-square-foot jewelry boutique, across the street from Marc Jacobs, is the third store for founders and designers Robin Renzi and Michele Quan, who have made a name with their Eastern-inspired creations.
“This [opening] is definitely a step up for us,” Renzi said. “It’s exciting for me because we’ve had so many people in film buy our jewelry that have never seen our store in New York. And you really don’t know what we do until you step into the stores.”
The company, which launched in 1991, opened its first store on Elizabeth Street in Manhattan in 1999 and a location at the Shore Club hotel in Miami in 2002.
The business took off when Renzi and Quan designed a hoop earring with dangling garnet or iolite beads. The look was quickly featured in magazines, then copied by mass manufacturers.
Since then, their A-list roster has blossomed, as well as their business. Renzi said she hopes that some of the celebrities who wear Me&Ro will forgo sending stylists into the store and actually pop in themselves.
If they do, they will find a contemporary, tranquil setting with an 18-foot, rectangular concrete pond artfully filled with floating flowers and greenery. Small ponds near the entrances of its stores are a Me&Ro hallmark, but for the Los Angeles boutique, the company chose to make it a design focal point.
As for designing pieces for award shows, Renzi said Me&Ro is not really about Oscar-style jewelry, even though Julia Roberts was wearing a pair of specially designed Indian rose-cut diamond drop earrings the night she won the best actress Oscar for “Erin Brockovitch.”
“When it comes to Oscars and Golden Globes, people want to really dress up,” Renzi said.
Renzi is going to India the day after Christmas to buy some hard-to-find diamonds.
“I am going to do more expensive diamond pieces, but our style isn’t glitzy,” she said.
Yet there are styles that could confidently hold their own at the swankiest of affairs, such as those from the Brazil collection. The pieces feature shades of pink and green tourmaline in large teardrop shapes done in necklaces and earrings. The bulk of the line is at the Los Angeles store.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
“My boyfriend is Brazilian and lucky me that 65 percent of the world’s gemstones come from Brazil,” Renzi said.
While Me&Ro may not be designing flashy, red-carpet looks, its pieces are in movies such as “Shopgirl” and “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
Renzi’s hair combs make an appearance in the meticulously coiffed manes of geishas in the film, and an entire collection of hair combs, elastics and jewelry inspired by the movie is available for sale at the stores and through Barneys New York. The hair ornaments retail from $1,015 to $7,785 for one in garnet and gold vermeil.
In addition, almost 30 one-of-a kind pieces were designed specifically for Los Angeles, including pieces from the coral collection, from $1,200 earrings to 1,000-year-old Tibetan coral beads paired with 22-karat gold at $8,800.
There’s also something for baby-obsessed Hollywood: a full line of mini bracelets, earrings, rings and pendants, such as the 18-karat gold Buddha foot for $345.
The company is projecting about $3 million in sales at the new store for the first year, Renzi said.
But retail expansion is not the company’s top priority. While Renzi said she would eventually like to open a store in Hawaii, she is in no hurry.
“Opening stores is so much work,” she said. “I really like designing and I think that we can grow without opening a store.”