Designer Spotlight: Celebrating PRIDE

🌈 Shining a Light on LGBTQ+ Jewelry Designers

Jewelry is more than adornment—it’s self-expression, identity, storytelling, and sometimes, quiet rebellion. This Pride Month, we honor LGBTQ+ designers whose creativity and courage profoundly shaped the world of jewelry. Their pieces don’t just sparkle—they speak.  From avant-garde artistry to everyday elegance, LGBTQ+ designers have long pushed the boundaries of design and meaning and reimagined what jewelry can be.

💎 Alexis Bittar

Bold, sculptural Lucite jewelry helped revive the costume jewelry movement in the ‘90s, bringing energy to the luxury accessory world. Bittar’s unapologetically expressive designs blend fashion, art, and identity. As a downtown NYC club kid and openly gay creative force, he’s used his Pride collections to support LGBTQ+ causes.

 💎Shaun Leane

A proud gay British designer celebrated for his transformational work with Alexander McQueen. Leane’s pieces balance dark romanticism and architectural precision—body armor reimagined as wearable art. Trained as a traditional goldsmith, his creations feature in museum collections and high profile exhibitions, and he champions creative freedom and inclusion. 

💎 Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR)

The epitome of fine jewelry secrecy and allure, JAR crafts museum level, one of a kind gemstone masterpieces in Paris. An openly gay designer, he channels intimacy and restraint. His work was celebrated in a major Met Museum exhibition, emphasizing how his private identity informs intimate artistic expression glamour.com.

 💎Fulco di  Verdura

One of the first openly gay fine jewelry designers, Verdura collaborated with Coco Chanel before launching his namesake line. His baroque infused, nature inspired pieces brought personal artistry to luxury jewelry. His legacy continues through the Verdura brand, reflecting early queer influence in high end design .

💎 Jean Schlumberger & René Lalique 

Schlumberger, working at Tiffany & Co., was part of queer creative circles in Paris and New York. His whimsical enamel pieces endure in popularity. Lalique, though not publicly gay, is considered part of the queer inflected Art Nouveau movement whose sensual designs reshaped decorative arts.

What PRIDE Means in Jewelry

Pride is about visibility, voice, and value. Whether wearing rainbow gemstone stacks, talismans for resilience, or striking designs by queer artists, jewelry becomes a statement of identity, history, and purpose.

This month—and every month—we honor the trailblazers and dreamers who dared to shine their light.