Monica Rich Kosann Fine Jewelry Turns 20 and Maneuvers for Growth
David Moin
6 min read
With the lockets and charms Monica Rich Kosann has been designing for many years, the intent is clear.
“When we started our business 20 years ago, my goal, my philosophy was to create jewelry that allowed a woman to tell her story, and to feel that they were pieces that were personal, empowering and inspiring,” Kosann said. “Our philosophy hasn’t changed. I’m just trying to create pieces that really make a woman feel like she’s putting on her armor for the day.”
The new Monica Rich Kosann shop in the Somerset Collection shopping center.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Monica Rich Kosann fine jewelry business, and by coincidence, much has been accomplished during this milestone moment to expand the brand story.
In late October, a 600-square-foot Monica Rich Kosann shop opened in The Forbes Company’s Somerset Collection in Troy, Mich. Also, a remodeling and enlargement of the Monica Rich Kosann shop on the seventh floor of Bergdorf Goodman was completed. The company continues to operate in Manhattan two 200-square-foot, glass-enclosed, cubical shops inside The Shops & Restaurant at Hudson Yards, and The Shops at Columbus Circle. Kosann calls them “my jewel boxes.”
“We do feel like the brand at this point is positioned for more opportunity than we can give ourselves. So we are actively looking at changing the capital structure of the business,” said Rod Kosann, co-owner of the company with his wife Monica. “We’re committed to store expansion over the next three to five years. We are going to rearrange the capital structure of the business to support store expansion because there’s nothing more expensive. Doing stores right can be very capital intensive.”
The company has ramped up wholesaling by expanding distribution into Canada via two luxury retailers — Birks, the fine jewelry retailer, and Holt Renfrew, the country’s leading luxury fashion retailer — and augmenting its longstanding business with the Mitchell Stores luxury retail group by adding Wilkes Bashford in Palo Alto, Calif. Monica Rich Kosann sells to about 150 points retailers in total, mostly independent jewelers and specialty retailers, including about a dozen added to the lineup this fall.
Direct mail was expanded this year, after a successful test during the holiday 2023 season.
At the Somerset Collection, “We have a three-sided corner spot on the 50-yard line between Saks and Neiman’s,” Rod said. “We have about 40 percent more linear feet there than we have in either one of our shops in New York City. We can tell a lot more stories. There are stories that we can’t tell at Columbus Circle because we don’t have the space for it. But we still love that space so much that we keep finding ways to be really efficient.
“We love the management philosophy of the Forbes Company,” he said. “Their marketing and management team has been really helpful. They’re trying to make the right introductions and help us think about how to be successful in the marketplace. They’re hosting events. They’ve put us in touch with local media. They have complimentary delivery every day within 40 miles of the mall for the stores.”
“I already did a Zoom call with their personal shoppers so I could tell them about our brand,” Monica added.
The Kosanns described the Troy store as very contemporary in design, with “high impact” graphics, an exterior painted in the brand’s signature marigold, custom fixturing, glass windows on three sides, and art work by Kosanns’ daughter Danielle, who serves as art director. Her artwork is sold at the Bergdorf shop, is seen at The Carlyle hotel in Manhattan (and on the hotel menus) and is exhibited in galleries.
For the Troy shop, she did a Michigan-themed oil painting that is displayed in the window. “Inside, we really lean into our locket bar, so our clients can enjoy the experience and the whole process,” Monica said.
The locket bar, which enables customers to take photos from their phones and have them sized perfectly to any locket they buy, fills a wall and can be viewed through the windows from outside the store.
The new Monica Rich Kosann shop in Bergdorf’s displays jewelry, gifts, frames and art. George Chinsee/WWD
At Bergdorf’s, “I started on a tiny, three-foot shelf 20 years ago. It was my garden. I nurtured that, and now it’s this 400-square-foot shop, seriously remodeled with new furniture, new carpeting, new lighting [and] new glass. It’s been repainted and re-wallpapered. It’s a very clean, bright space, and we have the art hanging on the wall, our picture frames in the back, and have lots of beautiful room to actually show all the jewelry,” which represents 85 percent of what’s sold there; home accessories, frames, art and gift items represent 15 percent.
“This past year-and-a-half, we crossed a major threshold in going beyond the two foundations of our business, the lockets and the charm oriented collections, because we started to add more collections that still stayed very true to our brand,” Rod said, citing a “bold” silver collection of earrings, rings, bracelets and necklaces deconstructing the symbol of infinity, and the “Points North” 18-karat and silver selection of earrings, bracelets and cuffs with a compass-inspired cuff with a unique clasp.
“It took us two years to engineer this cuff. The mechanisms are incredible,” Monica said. “Monica and our team tested the piece for six months,” Rod noted. The couple has filed for its patent protection.
In addition, the company made its first foray into diamond rings, with Point North everyday and bridal rings, and the Kosanns tout the fact that one of their signature “design your own” necklaces with their “Anna” locket with the compass charm was worn by Nicole Kidman in the movie “Baby Girl.” The Kosanns also relaunched select styles pulled from the archives, such as the toggle bracelet and toggle necklace, and the “continent” charm bracelet depicting earth’s seven continents on a limited basis in silver and 18-karat gold.
For the future, the company is working with a U.K. branding firm “on reimagining what the brand can look like, from the packaging to the website, for the next five to 10 years,” Rod said. “That marigold used at Troy is a nod to what’s coming from this branding company, but we are staying totally true to who we are. Nothing is changing in the DNA.”
“Everything for us is about creating something that has meaning,” Monica said. “Infinity symbolizes anything is possible. The compass is here to guide you spiritually on the journeys and the roads that we take and constantly change. We are in the business of making connections. Not only connections with our customers, but also with our customers, connecting with themselves.”
The compass-inspired Points North cuffs with the special clasp.
