8 October 2026 |
Jessica McCormack sells diamonds no one wants to take off and designs boutiques you’ll never want to leave. Is it any wonder she’s one of the jewelry industry’s brightest rising stars?
There are only a handful of jewelry brands that are household names. You know the ones. They get worn to every movie premiere and have designs that are recognizable from across a crowded room. And if you’re wagering on who will be next to grab that status, Jessica McCormack is a sure thing.
Exhibit A: in just over a year, she scored the coup of making (Giant! Gorgeous!) engagement rings for both Zendaya and Zoë Kravitz. (The latter is the brand’s first ambassador. Kravitz discovered the brand and became friends with McCormack while she was in England filming The Batman in 2020.) Part of the celebrity draw is that McCormack is not one to chase clout at the expense of her clients. The fact that she doesn’t leak scoops to tabloids, or even inquisitive fashion reporters, has endeared her to privacy-seeking shoppers with big budgets. Discretion and diamonds tend to go hand in hand.
Jessica wears Gypset Hoop earrings in white gold with diamonds and Tempest Narrow necklace with rubies by JESSICA MCCORMACK
Since the London-based New Zealand native launched her brand in 2008, McCormack has become the go-to source for laid-back jewelry that feels like a second skin. She comes by her appreciation for old, good things naturally, having grown up with a father who was an antiques dealer. McCormack also worked in Sotheby’s jewelry department for a stint and decided to forgo formal jewelry training to open her own atelier. In her studio, there’s heirloom-worthy attention to detail in the making of each piece, inspired by antique jewelry from an era when “people had more time.” She has single-handedly revived and modernized old school techniques, like the Georgian-era cut-down method of setting stones in cup-like gold mountings that play up their sparkle.
Not surprisingly, McCormack’s combo of youthful artistry meets heritage workmanship attracted the cool crowd from the start. Rihanna, who bought the diamond-laden Wings of Desire earrings, was one of her first clients. Since then, she has cornered the market on what she calls “day diamonds,” including her signature Gypset earrings, delicate gold hoops that dangle with diamond or gemstone drops in a full menu of shapes like pears, hearts, and florals. (Search Instagram for members of the #gypsetgirlgang and you’ll find mood board muses like Charlize Theron, Adele and Dakota Johnson, who swear by the earrings whether they’re wearing Celine denim or a corseted Margiela gown.) “I want to have beautiful things that are easy and part of our lives, whether it is red carpet or school run,” says McCormack.
Beyond her range of classic designs, McCormack has a quirky streak too. At the start of her career, she set diamonds in brass, using vintage pocket watches and clock movements, “things that I thought were very sculptural in shape.” Brass long ago gave way to gold, but she still shows off her playful side with collections like Fruit Salad, full of ruby earrings that look like cherries or lemon earrings set with yellow sapphires. The designer herself often wears a happy face pendant with diamond-studded eyes. Her range of serious and silly connects with her fans, (mainly) women who buy their own jewelry. “She’s got style, she knows what she likes, she’s very empowered,” says McCormack describing her customers. It’s a club that includes CEOs and scientists, artists and entrepreneurs.
from left: Zoe Kravitz, ambassador of Jessica McCormack; Diamond & Sapphire Bow Ring Diamond & Sapphire Bow Ring
Thanks to recent investment, the world beyond her London home base will get a better chance to see and shop for her jewelry. Lingotto, a fund owned by the Agnelli family’s holding company, bought a stake in her brand in late 2024, joining original investors Rachel Slack, a member of the Oppenheimer diamond dynasty, and third-gen diamond dealer Michael Rosenfeld. While expansion was always in the cards, the financial infusion has “sped things up a bit,” says McCormack. Seeing the reception of her work across the Atlantic is thrilling, and she is “fascinated to see how different people of different ages” connect with her jewelry.
First stop: the USA. (Americans are her largest source of sales outside England.) Though she has an established retail empire across London – in Mayfair, at Harrods, and on Sloane Street near Chelsea – McCormack opened her first stateside location last year in New York City, on Madison Avenue. Her American conquest will continue in the fall with the opening of a location at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and on Rodeo Drive in 2027 – her largest boutique outside the UK. And while more locations are under consideration, including international ones, she won’t spill the beans yet. (Again, she’s good at keeping a secret.)
McCormack’s discerning eye for design isn’t confined to jewelry. She also leads the interior design of her stores. The spaces are layered and cozy, with the vibe of an aristocratic English country house owned by, say, a Phoebe Philo-wearing gallerist. Her first boutique, housed in a 19th-century townhouse in central London’s Mayfair neighborhood, is the blueprint for those that have followed. There, she spliced antique Persian rugs, Suzani-clad pillows, and cushy floral upholstered seating with a treasure trove of art and design, from Sally Mann photography to Māori sculptures. “I love having a mix of styles,” she says of her store furnishings, “the same way that you would when building a jewelry collection.”
More stores mean plenty of room for new jewelry, and McCormack continues to debut more collections. Her medallions, talisman-like amulets with meaningful symbols – an eye, a burning heart, a spiral, a flower, and a swallow – were a sellout hit of the summer. (At the most recent Met Gala, Kravitz debuted the collection by wearing a pair of earrings dripping jumbo diamond tears.)
This fall, the new Bow collection will join the fold. Inspired by knotted ribbons in various shapes – a long, romantic pendant, a geometric ring with a central pearl flanked by baguette-cut diamonds – it is poised to become another success. McCormack is convinced it will even appeal to shoppers whose style is, like her own, a little boyish. “That’s my challenge,” she says, “that everyone will find something in the collection.”
from left: Medaillon Swallows & Amazons diamond pendant; Diamond Bow & Ribbon Drop earring Diamond Bow & Ribbon Drop earring
Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 7 – HERITAGE, LEGACY, FUTURE – out September 18! Order your copy here.
SHINE ON
Text TANYA DUKES
