Enter the Iconic World of Jessica McCormack
Jessica McCormack is the hostess with the mostest at her iconic Carlos Place townhouse in London and now at her already legendary Madison Avenue manse, serving up diamonds with a side of verve.
Jessica McCormack in her Carlos Place townhouse in London. (Photo by Tung Walsh)
Some people are the life of the party. Some live to party. But for a select few, the art of throwing a great party is innate. The 2026 GEM Award for Retail Excellence winner, Jessica McCormack, knows a thing or two about hosting. Her New York store opening party at the recently and gorgeously renovated Frick Collection was not only hugely photogenic–with ambassador Zoë Kravitz and friends of the house Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley, alongside the ton of New York– but also cozy and fun, with a focus on comfort food and great tunes.
On the day that I interview her, Ms. McCormack is fresh from her shoot for this profile, wearing an oversized lilac blouse, fabulous eye makeup, and her signature bold diamonds.
“I’m actually going for some drinks after this, and I’m going to be turning up looking quite like a drag queen,” McCormack laughs. Noting that this is quintessential “day diamonds”, it feels appropriate for her role as doyenne of offhand diamond glamour.
Meet the Expert
- Jessica McCormack is a New Zealand-born, London-based diamond jeweler.
- Her career began in the jewelry department of Sotheby’s, where she discovered her affinity for antique styles and traditional techniques.
- She launched her brand in 2008 with a mission to breathe new life into heirloom designs.
- Considered a cult-beloved jeweler, McCormack has a robust celebrity following, including Zoë Kravitz, Dakota Johnson, Zendaya, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Margot Robbie.
For those who haven’t been inculcated into this way of dressing, the designer encourages us to wear our jewelry from “school gates to dinner dates and everywhere in between,” the rhyme emblematic of McCormack’s playful sensibility. “There are twenty-four hours in the day, and now I’ve got a whole extra twelve hours to wear my diamonds, versus just the twelve hours at night.”
Inside Jessica McCormack’s Madison Avenue Townhouse
A hallmark of Jessica McCormack’s style, beyond her approachable take on luxury, is her sense of scale. Most stores pride themselves on their Lilliputian scale as literal jewel boxes, which serves the scale of the product. But not McCormack.
“When I first took Carlos Place on, everyone was like, ‘Why do you need this giant store when you sell tiny things. You don’t need five floors!”, she recalls. “But we’ve managed to grow into it.”
The townhouse, open since 2013, feels like the home of your most elegant friend whose taste one could never replicate. The New York store is no different, though with the added pressure of its prime location on Madison Avenue: the current Mecca for jewelry aficionados in the U.S., if not the world.
McCormack describes the process, saying, “It took a long time of refining, working out the customer journey, how much space do you need. I’ve obviously learned a lot of lessons, so my thing was to find a space that felt like the townhouse, where you can experience the same things: you can sit in the library, or you can be in a little hidden room where we have all the art and antiques. You can discover something new, and it’s like being welcomed into a home. It still has its own personality, but it feels connected to the mother ship.”
This warmth does not necessarily jive with the established jewelry store stereotype of frosty salons filled with unapproachable gems. When discussing the customer experience, Jessica McCormack stresses, “There was a stage when I was young when I was just too intimidated to go into a jewelry shop. I don’t know if I still feel so confident about just bowling into one. I want to be able to come in and feel it’s discoverable and fun, and you can find something, and it doesn’t have to be just dropping a hundred grand.”
This approach is clearly working as the store’s already a destination for clients, new and already fervent. However, nothing has been left to chance in the formula. “We did a lot of homework, a lot of market testing. It takes 20 years to become an overnight success. But I feel it’s going well because we’ve put the work in. We’ve got a great team,” McCormack offers humbly.
The Celebrity Relationships Behind Jessica McCormack’s Success
For Jessica McCormack, relationships must always be genuine, a philosophy that extends to the brand’s ambassador, Zoë Kravitz. “First, she was a client, then she was a friend, and now we work together. The trajectory of it was so natural.” And in the panoply of stars, there truly is no one who wears jewelry of McCormack’s magnitude with such ease.
“Recently, Zoë wore this 20-carat, D-flawless oval, on a ‘90s leather cord, which I thought created a vibe. Then other people were doing it, and it was a thing. Another time, she was asked, ‘Can you make me an arm band?’ And then that becomes a thing. She’s very thoughtful and detailed. She really cares. It’s a real relationship, it’s not transactional.”
The frenzy around the 1990s style seems in no danger of waning, and McCormack is here for it. “I mean, I love it. I’m a child of the ‘90s, so I feel it’s very cool.”
The chokers, the chandeliers, the bangles: no film in 2026 has captured the mood quite like Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, particularly the viral press tour, where Margot Robbie wore everything from Elizabeth Taylor’s Taj Mahal Diamond to custom pieces by McCormack. Much like working with her ambassador, the designer found a kindred spirit in Robbie’s stylist, Andrew Mukamal.
“We’ve worked with him for years, and when he floated the idea about doing something for Wuthering Heights, it felt so easy. Well, nothing is easy, but it felt natural because of my antique background and love of Victorian, Georgian, and kind of deco everything. He said, ‘This is what we are thinking: this bracelet from the Brontë sisters.’ With that as a reference, it’s easy to design.”
Asked whether Mukamal had a clear point of view, she confirms, “He’s like, ‘this is what we want to do, this is what I need.’ There’s not a lot of backwards and forwards. He’s done a lot of the thinking, and he trusts in the design, even if it’s just a sketch. Because, you know, you can’t just whip it up. Also, if I’m going to invest in making things, I want to be able to sell them. The daisy we made for Margot sold straight away!”
Why Every Jessica McCormack Design Has to Be Wearable
Salability and showstopping don’t often land in the same sentence. But in the house of McCormack, it’s de rigeur. “I’m not in the business of making jewelry just for fun. I remember, many years ago, a former CEO said to me, ‘It’s a very expensive prop if it’s not for sale, Jessica.’ I’ve always remembered that. It’s all very well seeing something on a beautiful, incredible, famous star, but then, can I wear this? Is that for the normal people?”
How Jessica McCormack Developed Her Signature Style
Jewelry, and the stories connected to those who possess the pieces, have long drawn in McCormack. Her childhood was an education in vintage. “My dad was an antiques and art dealer, so I just love old things. I love Victorian jewelry because, obviously, when I was in my twenties, I had an inner goth. The memento mori jewelry I loved, this was what drew the Brontë sisters, with the hair, the skulls, the enamel, the poesy rings, the secret messages. That was definitely my first love.”
When she began her career, many labeled her as an “edgy” designer. “And I was like, hmm, I have to drop the edgy for a bit. If I want to create a legacy brand, I can’t really be the edgy, gothy one–or I don’t want to be that forever. So, I decided the goth must go to sleep for a while.”
This desire to develop her aesthetic yielded an embrace of another love: Georgian jewelry. “From Victorian, I went in reverse to the Georgian period. There is something much softer about that era, which really resonated with me.”
As a typical magpie, McCormack is also drawn to Art Deco–the geometry and the references to towering skylines. Her instantly recognizable friendship bracelets, shimmering with emerald, sapphire, and diamond beads, embody all the hallmarks and are a personal totem. “It’s my favorite thing ever, I just wear it all day, every day.”
The designer’s style signatures remain constant whether she is in London, New York, Los Angeles, or anywhere really. “I design for the woman, and I hope that she can be living anywhere. And that’s the thing. You know how they always say, famously, you can’t be everything for everybody – you just have your people. But I have a granddaughter, a mother, and a grandmother, all wearing the same pair of earrings. There is something for everybody, essentially.”
What’s Next for Jessica McCormack
Asked what’s next, the designer is ebullient. “One of the things that I really love, and I feel is a niche of ours, is summer jewelry, summer diamonds. The new summer collection, which comprises 5 medallions, is so cool. I go around asking everyone which one they would choose if they had to choose one. And we’re putting money on what people will be drawn to! I love that everyone has a mix; everyone chooses something different. Which one speaks to you?” McCormack clearly specializes in the jewelry that speaks to us, like a friend.
