Q & A with Jewelry Designer Jade Trau

Jewelry designer Jade Lustig (Jade Trau) has an interesting and unique background, unlike most designers, which sets her apart from the rest! She grew up in the diamond industry, alongside her grandfather who worked everyday in the diamond district. Jade was surrounded by diamonds, she not only knows the sparkle inside and out, but she has been a part of DTC Sightholder meetings and has seen the process of how to cut a diamond from rough form. All of this, combined with her love of fashion, has led her on a great journey as a jewelry designer. Her pieces are cool, charming and unique! I like how she finds a void within the jewelry marketplace and tries to fill that void with what she wants to see more of and I am absolutely in love with her diamond charm rings! She has a new collection debuting soon, and I cannot wait to see it. I got a chance to catch up with the busy designer, who is the proud mother of twins, and asked some important questions:

In addition to continuing my collaboration with Forevermark, I am currently developing a new 14kt diamond fashion line that will debut at the couture show this year. It’s my chance to have a bit more fun and take some design risks.

I started working with my grandfather who manufactured rough diamonds from De Beers when I was in college. I would spend the early morning hours in the factory to learn about the manufacturing side of the business, and the rest of the day working across the desk from my grandfather where he taught me about diamond grading and introduced me to the incredibly eclectic group of people that you meet in this industry. Even when I was in school, I started working on jewelry pieces for myself, individual clients and doing small collections for independent retail stores under their private label. After 15 years of working mostly selling parcels of loose diamonds, meeting my husband while he was selling diamonds to my grandfather, and giving birth to twin boys, I finally mustered up the confidence to move ahead full force with my namesake jewelry collection.

My stacking charm rings, cuff bracelets and diamond stud earrings have been some of my best sellers so far. All of my pieces are meant to be worn layered and have the feeling of something totally familiar, yet new and fresh. My intention with the line is to create new diamond classics…items that you still are excited to put on in 10 years and don’t feel dated. I try to make heirloom quality jewelry that is accessibly priced.

I hope the future will continue to bring the joy and success that the past two years have brought me as I have ventured into the world of fine jewelry; meeting some phenomenal people and humbly learning new things every day about my creative process and the art of creating wearable jewelry with precious stones and metals. It’s hard to think beyond the present right now, but I love the idea of designing tableware down the road. It’s just like jewelry, not a necessity but somehow eating on a beautifully set table makes the food taste even better!

My favorite pieces of jewelry are my halo diamond stud earrings that were two of the last stones that I manufactured with grandfather in our New York City factory. There is something about a beautiful pair diamond earrings that don’t just sparkle themselves, but illuminate your entire face. My other favorite piece is my engagement ring. It is an antique rose cut diamond, which is what my great great grandfather manufactured when he first started in the diamond business over 130 years ago. It’s funny because my diamond earrings are all about sparkle…I feel like they shine across the room, and yet my engagement ring is all about subtlety. I guess it’s because I can stack a lot more rings on my fingers then I can earrings in my ear!