“Opening in a world metropolis like Los Angeles has at all times been a beautiful dream,” mentioned Margot McKinney.
The Australian jewellery designer has introduced her namesake model to The Peninsula Beverly Hills, the five-star lodge on the intersection of Wilshire and South Santa Monica boulevards. It marks Margot McKinney’s first impartial boutique exterior of its flagship in Brisbane, Australia.
Margot McKinney at The Peninsula Beverly Hills.
The store in Beverly Hills, a 180-square-foot jewel field, is positioned across the nook from the lodge foyer.
“When this chance arose at The Peninsula, I used to be so excited, as a result of The Peninsula is basically the fitting place for us to be,” she continued. “They’ve the identical household values.”
A fourth era of the McKinney household, her great-grandfather, John, established the enterprise in Toowoomba, Queensland, as a tobacconist and retailer of imported items. The second era introduced nice merchandise into the store, together with pearls from Japan, and grew it right into a profitable division retailer that provided nice jewellery.
Margot McKinney has carried that heritage ahead and formed a model that’s recognized for its daring and nature-inspired designs mixing opals, pearls and colourful gems, bought at retailers together with Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.
Margot McKinney (proper) and her nephew, Andrew McKinney Welch, who works for the household enterprise.
“The jewellery that we’ve is basically very particular,” mentioned McKinney. “Australia produces the best pearls on this planet. We’ve probably the most lovely opals. We’re now a fifth-generation enterprise — it’s 141 years outdated — and we’ve wonderful relationships with the best gem cutters on this planet. And I actually am a agency believer that each enterprise is about relationships.”
She works with the likes of Paul-Otto Caesar, a gem cutter in Germany; Aji Ellies, a pearl farmer in Australia and Peter Gregory Sherman, an opal miner in Australia — all fifth-generation companies.
“A lot of the opals that I take advantage of are from final century,” she went on. “They have been mined within the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies. And it’s as a result of Peter has these unbelievable relationships with outdated miners and outdated households that I’m capable of design with these unbelievable gems.”
The store at The Peninsula showcases collections of vibrant assertion stones, priced round $20,000 for pearl earrings to a number of million {dollars} for items crafted with uncommon gems. A standout is the Marina necklace, which debuted on the TEFAF Maastricht artwork honest within the Netherlands, a 241.14-carat cushion-cut inexperienced beryl with a baroque pearl suspended from a 65.72-carat aquamarine gemstone, and set with an association of inexperienced tourmaline, diamonds, baroque South Sea pearls, sapphires, aquamarines, paraibas and tsavorites.
The partitions are coated in teal chinoiserie-inspired wallpaper with botanical and unique chook motifs, whereas the cabinetry and trim function McKinney’s signature Kelly Inexperienced. An vintage wood desk sits to the facet, paired with leopard-print chairs.
Margot McKinney jewellery.
Courtesy of Margot McKinney
“That is an thrilling alternative,” she mentioned of touchdown in Beverly Hills. “And I feel enterprise is all about, when a possibility presents itself, saying, ‘Sure, I’m going to take it.’”
Of what’s subsequent, McKinney added: “I’m at all times desirous about my collectors and matching lovely items of bijou with comfortable households. That’s what I really like doing.”
