It only makes sense that Steven Lagos has this week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on his radar.

A native of the City of Brotherly Love, Steven has reason to feel a sense of pride for his hometown. He launched his career there 39 years ago, and his flagship is located on in the city’s tony Walnut Street. In time for the DNC, he has added to his Rare Wonders collection.

“I have had an elephant in my Rare Wonders line forever, and it has been a bestseller,” Lagos said. “The DNC is in Philadelphia and I thought, ‘We can’t have this elephant without having a counterpart,’ so I made a little donkey. Now we can walk on both sides of politics.”

Lagos will reach four decades in business next year and as he reaches the milestone, he reflects on the past while plotting the future.  When Lagos decided to make jewelry, he captured the beginning of a movement.

“I started making jewelry in high school,” he recalled. “I was a hippie.

“The designer jewelry business grew up right around us,” he added. “In the Eighties, “It was the beginning of more branded bridge jewelry, that space between fine and costume. It became a billion-dollar industry, the jewelry department’s response to ready-to-wear.”

For Lagos, the beaded Caviar Collection became a cornerstone of his success. In the fall, he is furthering this aesthetic with the launch of the Caviar Icon Collection in colorful precious gemstones set in 18-karat gold, as well as a new ceramic version of the look.

“You start looking at what the next 40 years are going to look like,” Lagos said. “The Icon idea is about our core values. We are looking at what our brand is about and really institutionalizing this.”

These new collections play into the ethos of the jewelry brand: classic women’s jewelry for every day. “We are not red carpet,” the designer said. “People have a jewelry box full of jewelry and they wear our jewelry three days a week. It’s part of their uniform.”

Adding to that uniform is now the KSL collection designed by Lagos’s daughter Kate, which brings in a whole new generation of Lagos fans. That’s music to Lagos’s ears.

“I like to see people wearing my jewelry,” he said, smiling.