In 2012, Suzanne Kalan was playing with a parcel of diamond baguettes on her desk when inspiration struck: What if she set them like her other stones — scattered, with slightly different elevations — in jewelry? She did just that in 2013, and the result, the Fireworks collection, went down in jewelry history as one of the most profound (and most widely copied) signature styles of contemporary design.
Fashion for fun
Kalan’s family is of Armenian descent and moved to Los Angeles, California, from Lebanon when she was 18. Her father opened a jewelry store downtown, and she worked for him. “Back then, fine jewelry was really boring. There were limits on what we could do,” she explains. For fun, she started making fashion jewelry.
By that time, she was married and had an infant daughter named Patile (now Patile Gemayel), who slept while her mom made pieces in brass and Swarovski crystal. Kalan created jewelry for herself and her sister, but others soon took notice. Local store owners asked to purchase items, and one requested a piece in sterling silver. Kalan’s first silver line comprised 20 pieces and totaled $10,000. By the end of her first year, she had rung up $100,000 in sales.
“Our bedroom was my little factory, and my husband would help me when he came home from work,” she relates. The Suzanne Kalan brand officially debuted in 1998.
Setting off Fireworks
Eventually, she stepped up efforts by renting office space and moving into beaded gemstone styles in 14-karat gold.
“I did that for a long time,” she says.
Growing up, her daughter helped make the beaded jewelry after school. Today, Gemayel is her business partner, and Kalan’s son, Kami Ari Kalandjian, is a graphic designer in charge of the website, images and all creative projects.
As Kalan moved into 18-karat gold and diamonds, her DNA evolved to feature signature scattered settings with multi-level stone effects, and colored gemstones set underneath transparent ones. “I like the uneven, scattered look, even though I’m not a messy person,” she says. “The look makes the gems stand out.” As for baguettes, she knew dealers had plenty on hand.
“Everybody had leftover baguettes — dealers were stuck with bags of sizes that didn’t fit everywhere,” she recalls. Now, Kalan cuts her own — but don’t expect to see tapered varieties. “Ours are all straight,” she asserts, though her mixes do reflect a variety of sizes. “We’ll use up to five different sizes in a ring.”
Women were immediate fans. “Women thought the look was totally different, while most men didn’t get it,” says Kalan.
In a bittersweet development, the scattered-baguette style has left so many people smitten that it’s become one of the most ubiquitous looks in all of jewelry. Kalan’s most iconic creation, for example, is her baguette diamond bangle, which she says “has been copied in every single way possible.” Appropriated inspirations of Kalan’s scattered-baguette jewels have shown up at trade shows, in eBay shops, on Instagram, and in myriad jewelry cases.
Even after Fireworks debuted in 2013, Kalan continued to offer variations of it, including evil-eye looks with long baguette eyelashes, and the picture-frame-inspired gemstone designs of her Inlay collection. For Inlay, Kalan envisioned an unusual setting approach: Not channel, pavé or bezel, but prong settings inside individual gold frames for a super-clean look.
“The stone is lower than the gold frame, but clutched by prongs,” she explains. “I’m patenting that idea.”
She is also experimenting with mixing baguettes and princess-cut diamonds. “I have some really beautiful pieces that were supposed to debut at Couture 2020,” she says.
A place on the shelf
A newly instated shop-in-shop at UK luxury department store Harrods is another exciting development. Kalan’s growth there was organic: She started with one case of Fireworks styles, which then grew to two, then four, and finally Harrods offered her a bigger presence because of her jewelry’s popularity. “Harrods is a great partner,” she says.
Her 14-karat gold designs can also be found in London retailers Liberty and Matches Fashion, while Browns and all Dover Street Market locations carry her 18-karat gold offerings. Kalan’s collections are available at dozens of fine jewelers across the US as well. Price-wise, her 14-karat gold pieces have an average retail range of $700 to $1,000, while a typical 18-karat gold and diamond piece averages about $4,000.
While 2020 has been the type of year no one could have predicted, Kalan carries on in a focused and meaningful way. “We are looking for quality, not quantity, in partners,” she explains.
For 2021, she expects the stacking trend to stick around, as well as a desire for diamonds. What’s next may surprise her diamond devotees: Pearls. “I’ve been thinking more about them,” she says.
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Image: Suzanne KalanArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2020. To subscribe click here.