Jesse Marlo Lazowski: The Inspiring Vision of Marlo Laz

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Who’s Who in Diamond Jewelry: Jesse Marlo Lazowski

The New York designer of Marlo Laz on her jewelry icons, lucky charms, and her obsessive collecting.

Published: September 26, 2025
Written by: Jill Newman

Jesse Marlo Lazowski is in her Marlo Laz Upper East Store (Courtesy of Katherine Goguen)

To truly know Jesse Marlo Lazowski, step in her boutique on the Upper East Side or West Village, where you are immersed in the world of Marlo Laz. The inviting, pink-walled space reflects her passions and stories. It’s decorated with a mix of cozy furnishings, curated artisan accessories, art, and ceramics collected from her travels around the globe, and, of course, the jewelry.

Her loyal following come for her distinctive, symbolic, and personalized pieces, and many linger, captivated by the stories behind them and the enchanting world she has created.

Meet the Author

Who’s Who in Diamond Jewelry: Jesse Marlo Lazowski

Jill Newman is a jewelry authority, editor, and storyteller with over 25 years of experience, having reported from diamond mines in Africa, cutting workshops in India and Belgium, and ateliers around the world.
She serves as Editor-at-Large for the Natural Diamond Council, with additional bylines in The New York Times, Town & Country, Elle Décor, and Robb Report.

A gifted storyteller, Jesse Marlo Lazowski shares her journey here with Only Natural Diamonds.

Only Natural Diamonds: Why did you become a jewelry designer?

Jesse Marlo Lazowski: You get to be a part of people’s lives in the most intimate of ways, and you hear their stories. Jewelry is often a sentimental purchase, marking someone’s wedding, birthday, milestone. It is a collection of memories and experiences funneled into tiny treasures of wisdom, knowledge and culture. It’s about keeping stories alive and people’s memories alive, passing down these messages from generation to generation. That’s what I love.

Jesse Marlo Lazowski Marlo Laz Upper East Store — Marlo Laz Upper East Store. (Courtesy of Katherine Goguen)

Jesse Marlo Lazowski in her West Village store. (Courtesy of Katherine Goguen)

OND: Your jewelry icon?

JML: My mama. She is the queen of layering, she always wears three Marlo Laz chains, each with about 10 charms. She’s a bit ‘70s bohemian with long, flowing hair, but she is such a modern woman at the same time. And both my grandmothers, great-grandmother, and great aunt were all big jewelry wearers—nothing sat in the safe.

OND: Who else influenced you?

JML: I learned everything I know about vintage jewelry from my grandmother’s sister, who had an amazing antique jewelry business in Brookline, Massachusetts. Since I was a little girl, I learned about Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Egyptian Revival, Edwardian, and Georgian pieces. She let me take old brooches and remake them into bracelets and necklaces.

Jesse Marlo Lazowski with her mother, Marcia Lazowski, at the West Village store. (Courtesy of Katherine Goguen)

OND: When did you know you would become a jewelry designer?

JML: At age 13. My mom taught me how to string beads at the kitchen counter in Hartford, where I grew up. I brought them to a clothing store, and they gave me a case to sell them. I called the collection Shop Girl and had business cards made with an illustration of me, a girl with curly hair.

OND: First significant jewelry piece?

JML: For my bat mitzvah, I was given a ruby and diamond brooch that belonged to my great-grandmother, Miriam, my middle name, Marlo, comes from. I turned the brooch into a necklace.

Jesse Marlo Lazowski loved jewelry from a young age. (Courtesy of Marlo Laz) — Jesse Marlo Lazowski has loved jewelry from a young age. (Courtesy of Marlo Laz)

OND: How did you get started?

JML: I studied art history and communications in Paris. In my senior year, my mom and I went to Jaipur, where we met an amazing man who took us around to see the artisan jewelers. I made my first collection in India, and after school, returned to New York and sold everything. I knew I wanted to move into fine jewelry, so I went to the GIA for a design course. Then I connected with a second-generation manufacturer on 47th Street, who let me sit across from him for a year to learn jewelry production. In 2014, I launched the Marlo Laz collection.

OND: The design that launched your collection?

JML: The Porte Bonheur amulets, French for “I bring good luck.” It encapsulates the spirit of the brand and what I wanted it to stand for— to spread lightness, goodness, love, and positivity. I feel like it’s my great responsibility to do that through Marlo Laz. My grandparents are Holocaust survivors, and they taught us to spread lightness in the world, and I’m continuing that.

OND: How do your journeys inspire your jewelry?

JML: I love Santa Fe. On a visit, I became fascinated with Millicent Rogers and this iconic image of her wearing the most amazing diamond brooch paired with silver and turquoise Native American jewelry. I thought: This is the Marlo Laz woman, someone who can wear the diamond brooch just as confidently as she can wear her turquoise and silver squash blossom necklaces and make it her own.

Rogers was this glamorous socialite who fell in love with Taos’ nature, landscape, and the people in Taos. I wanted to tell her story. I took a road trip from Tucson to Taos to visit her museum and stopped at White Sands National Park. That this trip inspired my Desert Rising collection in 2017. The pearls, diamonds, and brushed gold speak to the white sands of the park, and we are still creating new pieces from it today.

Jesse Marlo Lazowski at the Potentate Mine in Montana. (Courtesy of Marlo Laz)

OND: When are you most creative?

JML: I’m a night person and really get started designing at 10 or 11pm. I need to know the rest of the world is asleep when I’m working.

OND: What’s the best advice you were given?

JML: My godfather always said to me, “You’re never selling anything—you’re just telling your story.” That changed everything, because jewelry is storytelling. If people connect with it, it’s for them. If they don’t, it’s not.

OND: You collect art, what are some of your favorite pieces?

JML: I am really into Brazilian artists. There’s something energetic about their work that draws me in. I often fall in love with a piece and later discover by a Brazilian artist. I also love Gustav Klimt. His paintings look like jewelry, the gold, the filigree, the swirls and different flower motifs and colors. I see jewelry in the paintings.

OND: What’s your philosophy on collecting?

JML: I’m always looking for anything artisanal. I want to support craftsmanship and help keep it alive, whether it’s the jewelry makers on 47th Street, or the artisans making the Murano glasses that hold my signature candles. I work with craftspeople who carve my marble heart dishes outside Carrera, Italy. They’re all made from up cycled blocks of Carrara marble. When I discover something good, I want to share it with everyone and bring it to my stores.

OND: Latest obsession?

JML: Ceramics. I was recently in South of France and saw these ceramics that reminded me of Picasso’s ceramics. It turns out the artist makes them in Vallauris, where Picasso made his. I bought all of them, about 15 pieces, which I was going to sell in my store, but I haven’t been able to part with them yet.

OND: How do you get people to share their own jewelry stories?

JML: We recently launched our collection at a store in North Carolina and hosted a dinner for 15 women. I asked each of them to share a story about their most meaningful piece of jewelry. It was amazing how people opened up and connected. One woman talked about her pinky ring from her great grandfather. Another shared a crazy story about ring she lost and later found. Jewelry carries so much significance and meaning. It brings people together.