Since Temple St. Clair based her jewellery model in 1986, there was one notable enterprise milestone that she had not achieved: opening her personal boutique.
That’s altering this week, with the opening of an 800-square-foot retailer on Washington Avenue in New York Metropolis’s meatpacking district. It stands at avenue degree alongside a tranquil — at the very least by New York requirements — hall with luxurious neighbors resembling Christian Louboutin and the perfume purveyor Kilian Paris, and simply a few minutes’ stroll from the Whitney Museum of American Artwork.
“Timing is every little thing, proper?” mentioned Ms. St. Clair, 63. “Not solely have we seen a convergence of working with all these totally different artisans but additionally my crew proper now — Joe Cavalcante is president; Sam Romanoff, V.P. of selling — has actually expanded our shopper providers, our excessive contact degree.”
And as a self-professed “Downtown individual,” whose studio and residential are also under the unofficial Manhattan demarcation line of 14th Avenue, she mentioned the situation was a “excellent match.”
Ms. St. Clair sees the area, awash in a periwinkle-adjacent coloration that she and her crew name Temple Blue, as an embodiment of her model, which traces a lot of its inspiration to the Renaissance. It “brings my worlds collectively,” she mentioned. “New York is my entrepreneurial, enterprise middle. Florence is my artistic middle. These two elements of myself are coming collectively right here, together with my love of artisans and hand contact.”
An eight-foot glass-topped vitrine that she calls “the story desk” bisects the primary of two rooms devoted to her creations. It holds a small exhibition tracing the evolution of her designs, beginning along with her earliest jewellery that includes historical cash, together with some archival gadgets and items representing the enterprise’s core collections.
Presently on present are a Sassini cuff with granulated particulars, representing a few of her preliminary work in gold, alongside along with her namesake, bezel-set Temple rings with central coloured gems flanked by three diamonds on either side. Certainly one of her Tolomeo pendants, a design that includes concentric, rotating sapphire-set rings, can be on view; it depicts the astronomical concept that earth was the middle of the universe (the identical design is on everlasting show on the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris).“It is sort of a little journey,” she mentioned of the desk show, “a timeline of bijou.”
Past a pair of sliding glass and metal doorways with brass handles and rosette particulars, a second, extra intimate area homes extra wall-mounted jewellery shows and an armoire with illuminated drawers that Ms. St. Clair mentioned had been “openable by shoppers” to provide them “a component of shock and discovery.” She intends to have a rotating assortment of bijou inside: suites with the form of colourful gems — black opal, blue moonstone, tanzanite — she favors, celestial-themed pendants and different signature gadgets.
An image rail has been mounted alongside the partitions of the second room to accommodate artwork installations. “I need it to be an exhibit area, whether or not for my very own watercolors, portraits from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, or different activations,” Ms. St. Clair mentioned. (In 2021, the model commissioned Sharif Hamza to {photograph} members of the dance firm carrying Temple St. Clair jewellery to mark the beginning of the season.)
Whereas her model is on the market in unbiased outlets resembling Mad Lords in Paris and malls resembling Saks Fifth Avenue and Wako in Tokyo, she additionally has a following that makes big-ticket purchases immediately from her web site — like the client of an $85,000 18-karat gold and diamond bracelet depicting the solar, moon and stars and incorporating a useful sundial. For shoppers preferring looking for such items in individual, the boutique would be the solely retail location the place Temple St. Clair excessive jewellery can be displayed, alongside unique merchandise with extra accessible costs, like personalised rock crystal amulets (from $3,250).
The Riccardo Barthel studio of Florence labored on the store’s inside design. As along with her jewellery — a lot of which is manufactured in Florence and Valenza, Italy, in addition to workshops in the USA, Bangkok and Sri Lanka — a lot of the boutique’s options had been made in Italy.
Ms. St. Clair mentioned she participated actively within the design undertaking, contributing objects from her travels, resembling a pair of Gustavian chairs she had bought in Paris and pendant lighting fixtures she commissioned from the Turkish material artist Betil Dagdelen.
Edahn Golan, a diamond and jewellery business analyst and the founding father of the information development firm Tenoris, mentioned a retailer might amplify promoting alternatives. “Promoting jewellery is about telling a narrative,” he mentioned. “If you happen to convey somebody into your individual universe, you may promote extra models for extra.”
And a retailer’s existence might draw consideration from extra than simply potential shoppers, he famous: “Let’s say you need out or to broaden rather a lot. If you wish to appeal to the eye of Richemont or LVMH, then that’s the way you do it. ”
Ms. St. Clair mentioned she believed that her firm, which she owns, had traits in widespread with these powerhouses. “We’re a bit of maison,” she mentioned. “We’ve got iconic jewellery. We’ve got a historical past.”
And he or she intends to dedicate a lot of consideration to its latest part. “I can be within the retailer,” she mentioned. “On a regular basis.”
