“There are days when I feel like I’ve just begun and then there are days when it feels like it’s been 10 years,” Jennifer Meyer said of launching her brand a decade ago with Barneys New York, her very first retailer. “It’s exciting to mark milestones, to see the accomplishments and enjoy being in business for so long.”
Now, Meyer is making a homecoming of sorts. This month, she celebrates the anniversary with the launch of Barneys New York XO Jennifer Meyer, an exclusive capsule collection that, in a first for the jewelry designer, features clothes for fall 2015.
“Barneys really took a chance on me when I was a brand new designer, and they really helped my business in more ways than I can even begin to list,” the designer, a runner-up at the 2012 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, said of working together on the 13-piece collection that evokes, in equal parts, easygoing California vibes — as befits Meyer’s background — and the stylish Parisian chic she favors. “So doing an exciting project with them is the perfect marriage.”
Of the process, Meyer admitted there was little crossover from jewelry design and production. “With jewelry, I got to teach myself how to do it and took the time to attempt to get it right,” she explained, noting the ability in jewelry to rework metal, use scraps, melt or add pieces. “That was a really different process with clothing, which I had never known.”
Meyer brought her signature “Made with love in Los Angeles” appeal to the collaboration, taking a hands-on approach to the design process and working on each piece until it was not only as perfect as it could be, but felt fresh out of her own closet.
The capsule, which she described as a little bit of what every girl needs, ranges from a striped tee to a perfectly distressed denim jacket and a silk floral print wrap dress.
“I always look at jewelry as an investment. It’s something that will last a lifetime if you want it to. And it’s sort of how I look at clothing as well,” she said of the desire to create the ultimate – and enduring – accompaniment to her fine jewelry line. Accepting its creative challenges, Meyer hopes that clothing design is in her future again somewhere, but until then, she’s content to commemorate the occasion and do what she loves most: to “make jewelry for all the awesome women that wear it.”
The Barneys New York XO Jennifer Meyer collection, which will retail between $150 and $1,025, will be available on Barneys.com and at Barneys New York Madison Avenue, Beverly Hills, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, and San Francisco from Nov. 18.