Designers
JUDE FRANCES
Combining classic elegance with on trend shapes and styles, Jude Frances Jewelry offers something for women of all ages. Starting with their signature hoop and charm earring concept, Jude Frances has evolved into a comprehensive line featuring necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings across several collections.
Founder Jude Steele uses her unique style and design aesthetic to lead the Jude Frances design team in creating fresh, on trend styles that appeal to a variety of women. Driven by fashion and style, Steele has a knack for staying ahead of trends. This combined with her background as a photographer has given her a keen eye not only in leading the design team but creating new vision for the company as a whole.
Adding another component to the ever popular Jude Frances earring hoop and charm silhouette, the now coveted earring charm frame creates endless Ways to Wear. Combining the Jude Frances 18K gold and diamond hoop earrings with any number of earring charms and earring charm frames create limitless style possibilities. As a collector, the Jude Frances woman can take the Ways the Wear to the Ways to Collect and create a jewelry wardrobe and look reflective of her own personal style. In business since 2002, Jude Frances continues to grow and develop into one of the most coveted fine jewelry lines available. Featuring twice yearly Spring and Fall Collections, the Classic 18K Collection is made with 18K gold, diamonds and semi-precious stones and the Soho Silver Collection is comprised of Sterling Silver, diamonds, and semi-precious stones.
SLOANE STREET
Frances Gadbois, former designer and co-founder of Jude Frances Jewelry, has partnered with her fashion-forward, 21-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to form a classically chic, multi-generational 14k and 18k gold jewelry line. The thought of starting a company together had been on the forefront of Frances and Charlotte's minds for many years. The relationship between this mother-daughter duo is truly admirable. Through Charlotte’s eyes, her mom is her role model exemplifying what it means to work hard and believe in yourself. With the emotional loss of the passing of a parent and grandmother to Alzheimer’s in March of 2014, it seemed like an opportune time to create something in their loved one’s remembrance. The duo collaborated during their time in England, and in turn Sloane Street was born. However Sloane Street is more than a brand, it's a chic lifestyle.
Frances entered the fashion industry at age 16 when she was scouted by world renowned, London based modeling agency, Models 1. She moved from the English countryside to a tiny apartment in London on Sloane Street. At 18, she moved from Europe to the Big Apple to continue her extremely successful modeling career, where she met her soon to be husband and later moved to the sunny West Coast. After settling into her new life in California, the young entrepreneur channeled her eye for detail by starting an interior design company. Frances had a knack for design at a very young age, sketching and drawing in a notepad that she carried with her finding inspiration in ironwork, tapestries and architecture. Thirteen years later, she left behind the interior design world to start a new chapter of her life in the jewelry industry. Frances was co-founder and sole designer of Jude Frances Jewelry for over 12 years. Her European heritage, architectural inspiration and design expertise makes her one of the most intriguing and sophisticated designers in the industry. Over the years, Charlotte has watched her mom sketch and design, instilling an eagerness to be a part of the jewelry industry.
Charlotte possesses the same determination and creativity as her mother, but brings a fresh, trendy allure to the Sloane Street team. After spending 6 months in Paris, studying and living in one of the biggest fashion capitals of the world, Charlotte came back hungry to design and jump head first into the jewelry industry, with her mother by her side. Charlotte’s vibrancy and kind heart comes through in her collection, Sage. The 14k gold collection, Sage By Sloane Street, was designed with the 20-somethings in mind, keeping true to her classic style, while creating on trend, delicate pieces.
Sloane Street announced their partnership with The Alzheimer’s Association Orange County in January 2015 and has designed a collection of pieces in 18k gold and Lemon Lavender Amethyst, accenting The Association’s national color. 100% of the proceeds of the pieces sold is gifted to the Alzheimer’s Association. Sloane Street is proud to give back to an organization that is so near and dear to their hearts.
OSCAR HEYMAN
The story of one of the most prestigious American jewelry firms actually started in Latvia in 1888 when Oscar Heyman was born.
One of nine children, Oscar along with his older brother Nathan, apprenticed in their great uncle’s jewelry workshop in Kharkov (Ukraine). The shop did work for the incomparable Fabergé and the brothers were trained in the finest jewelry making techniques.
In 1906, Oscar and Nathan made the trip across the Atlantic to New York City. A year later their brother Harry followed. Oscar had learned to work with platinum during his apprenticeship in his uncle’s shop and was well versed in using the new high-tech oxyhydrogen torch that made it possible to fashion the metal — which has an extremely high melting point — into jewelry. He soon landed a job with Cartier and was the firm’s first New York bench jeweler who was not French. Nathan worked for Western Electric in the tool and die shop. After leaving Western Electric Nathan continued to make tools and Oscar Heyman holds a dozen or so patents for jewelry making.
It didn’t take long for Oscar, Nathan and Harry to strike out on their own. In 1912 they opened their doors in downtown Manhattan at 47 Maiden Lane as Oscar Heyman & Brothers. Later that same year, six more siblings arrived in the City and through the years all but one spent their entire careers working in the business.
The firm was making jewelry for all the big-name jewelers of the day including Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Black, Starr & Frost, J.E. Caldwell and Van Cleef & Arpels among others. Currently, Oscar Heyman continues to produce jewelry for high-end jewelers but also brands its own collection.
Oscar Heyman was known for its high-quality manufacturing and jewelry design and today the company has an extensive archives of about 200,000 sketches. Color is at the core of the firm’s aesthetic, which is known for its exceptional gemstones.