When you step into the Brent Neale showroom, it feels more like a living room than a jewelry store. Couches are arranged in sitting areas, books and decorative objects are scattered throughout the sprawling, light-filled penthouse, and one wall features the designer’s gouache paintings of her designs. There are curvaceous custom vitrines displaying her whimsical, colorful jewels along another wall, but that is not the main attraction.
The space was designed to immerse visitors in Brent Neale Winston’s world. In recent years, she has attracted more than 173,000 followers on Instagram, where she offers a glimpse into her lifestyle: how she styles her jewelry for a night out or day at the beach, family moments and her designs in progress, from sketches to the finished pieces. And since May, when she opened the 7,000-square-foot space on Fifth Avenue in New York City, clients can experience her world firsthand.
“I like to call it residential-style retail,” Ms. Winston said. “When a client visits, they’re bringing me a piece of jewelry to redesign or a stone to make something meaningful, or they’re looking to buy a piece of jewelry for a special occasion. They’re telling me a lot about themselves. I want them to leave feeling like they know me too.”
The showroom reflects the designer’s playful and lively aesthetic. The interiors are layered with colorful Pierre Frey fabrics and wallpapers, a children’s nook has a table and chairs for coloring and shelves are lined with books on her favorite artists, such as Ellsworth Kelly and Wassily Kandinsky.
As her business has moved to focus more on custom pieces, the showroom gives her the time and space to discuss design options with clients and sketch ideas, she said. Once a design is finalized, the final product is made by jewelers around the corner, in the city’s jewelry district.
Ms. Winston is part of a growing movement among independent jewelers who are rethinking the traditional sale experience. In the past two years, more designers have opened by-appointment showrooms in cities, including New York, London, Los Angeles and Paris, driven, at least in part, by the uncertain state of jewelry retailers.
In January Saks Global (the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a process that allows struggling businesses to refinance their debt and remain open rather than liquidate. Many jewelry designers were left with unpaid invoices and canceled orders. And some feared a painful repeat of what happened when Barneys New York filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and then closed the following year.
“We lived through Barneys closing and learned you can’t put all your eggs in another person’s basket,” Ms. Winston said. “We have amazing wholesale partners, but I also really want to invest in myself.”
Meeting the Designer
Beyond offering financial security, a private showroom also allows designers to control how their work is shown and experienced while building relationships with clients. The by-appointment model, they note, provides a sense of intimacy and exclusivity that traditional retailers cannot replicate.
They maintain that it is the opposite of what has happened with most luxury retailers, who have opened large-scale stores, complete with cafes, in cities around the world.
This by-appointment approach is not entirely new, however. High-end houses such as Taffin by James de Givenchy; Joel A. Rosenthal, best known as JAR; and Glenn Spiro have sold almost exclusively via private appointments for years. And in late 2024, after 130 years with a street-level store in Munich, the jeweler Hemmerle moved to an upstairs space to engage more personally with clients, the owners said at the time.
The difference now is that the by-appointment model is no longer just for the ultra-high-end houses.
Beyond the Jewelry
Jewelry is among the most personal of purchases, whether bought to mark a milestone or, increasingly, to redesign an heirloom. That intimacy shapes how these showrooms operate.
“The private setting allows conversations to unfold naturally,” Sophie Bille Brahe, a designer who has by-appointment salons in her native Copenhagen and on Madison Avenue in New York, wrote in an email. “Meetings with clients are very intimate, and over time, these relationships often become much more than traditional client relationships.”
The airy New York space reflects Ms. Brahe’s minimalist aesthetic, and she brought in some of her Danish heritage with two lion statues that once stood guard outside her family’s home. While a few jewelry vitrines in the showroom would facilitate browsing, the designer or a sales associate usually presents a curated selection of jewelry to each client, based on the person’s interests.
It’s about creating a sense of place that goes beyond the jewelry.
“I want to welcome people into my world,” said Marie Lichtenberg, a Paris designer known for her playful, colorful jewelry. She opened her by-appointment showroom last fall in St.-Germain-des-Prés, the neighborhood where she grew up and lives today.
The space has been decorated in an apartment style, with cozy furnishings that include a mix of her flea market finds, antiques, art and a margarita bar to encourage lingering. The designer’s signature lockets are often engraved with personal inscriptions and designs, and collaborating with the client helps develop a piece imbued with meaning, she said.
The Full Range
Fernando Jorge, who was born in Brazil, began working directly with clients in London during the pandemic, when store closures prompted some to reach out though social media, he said. Those relationships helped shape his business and ultimately led to the opening of his own space in London’s Mayfair neighborhood in 2023.
The space blends his South American roots with a British aesthetic, with curvaceous furnishings, Brazilian artworks and warm, natural hues that reflect the sensuous style of his jewelry.
“The showroom gave me the space to show the full range of my work,” he said. The model proved so successful, he added, that last year he doubled the size of his London showroom to about 2,700 square feet and opened a location in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.
In the past two years, as Mr. Jorge has expanded his presence at art fairs such as PAD London, TEFAF Maastricht and Salon Art + Design in New York, the showrooms have become places to continue talking with new clients from those events. For many designers, such ongoing conversations are the very reason private showroom spaces matter.
“It’s like people step into your home,” Ms. Lichtenberg said. “I make them a margarita. We talk about everything. Meeting people is truly precious today.”
