Culture & Style
How the LA Jewelry District United After the 2025 Fires
Strong and resilient, meet the Angelenos who have witnessed the transformation of their city and lovingly call it home.
Photographed by: Vincenzo Dimino
Written by: Jane Asher
June 6, 2025.
Picture skyscrapers towering above bustling sidewalks. Locals move in and out of buildings on their phones, while gaggles of tourists and shoppers peer into the window cases of diamond wares, as security guards stand at attention. While this could accurately describe New York City’s famous Diamond District on 47th Street, it was actually the scene I witnessed while strolling down South Hill Street in the LA jewelry district.
Meet the Author
- Jane Asher is a social media manager with a passion for pop culture.
- She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from Washington University in St. Louis.
- As a journalist, her work has been featured in publications such as InStyle Magazine, Stylecaster, Martha Stewart Weddings and more
It was a small but mighty community of designers, diamond dealers, bench workers, and manufacturers who built Los Angeles’s lesser-known diamond district from the ground up. The buildings that still stand today were built in the 1920s, but became a diamond destination in the 1960s as an influx of jewelry stores settled mostly on South Hill Street. With the fashion district around the corner, filled with fabric wholesalers and sewing supply stores, it made sense that diamonds found their home nearby.
Resilience in the LA Jewelry District After the 2025 Fires
Over the years, the LA Jewelry District has weathered the ebbs and flows of real estate development in L.A., a changing economy, and even natural disasters. In January, wildfires across the Pacific Palisades and Altadena displaced thousands of families, shut down beloved local businesses, and destroyed neighborhoods. The devastation was severe, but through it all, L.A. stuck together, organizing donation sites, taking in foster animals, and supporting one another through some of the most difficult times the community has faced in recent years.
Despite these hurdles, the LA jewelry district and community has slowly grown, expanding from that small block of streets in DTLA. Designers have popped up in storefronts on the West Side and beyond as communities settled into the more idyllic, palm-tree-lined streets of Greater L.A. However, even those designers who chose the quieter neighborhoods of Brentwood and West Hollywood find themselves back in the Downtown LA jewelry district, doing business in historic buildings like the Vincent Jewelry Center and the International Jewelry Center, as it remains the hub of the city’s diamond manufacturing.
The foundation that was laid decades ago is now a jumping-off point for the next generation. The torch has been passed to create a bigger and better jewelry community than the one that came before it.
LA Jewelry District: Generations of Jewelers
LA Jewelry District Legacy: Generations of Family Jewelers
For a jeweler like Norman Silverman, who has been in the business for over 40 years, the next generation is already hard at work. “I used to come on Sundays as a four-year-old kid,” says Judah Silverman, Norman’s son. “He would check the mail, I would pick up a tweezer, I’d look at 0.01-carat, 0.02-carat diamonds, not knowing I would go into it. But when I was around 10 years old, I was like, ‘This is what I want to do’.” Silverman notes that it was his mother who pushed his father to pursue his dream of opening his own jewelry brand after spending years trading loose diamonds in DTLA.
Born out of Silverman’s early days in DTLA was a team of manufacturers and producers who have stood the test of time. “We have been with the same ones from the get-go, and 90-95% of their workflow is for us.” Silverman is proud of his family’s loyalty and for good reason: It always brings quality products to their loyal customers. “We have one shop just making eternity rings, one shop just making necklaces, one just making engagement rings, so what makes us stand out is how quickly we can put out a special order.” This ethos has helped them build a brand synonymous with the LA jewelry district and scene today.
Since 1949, when Arthur Polacheck relocated his family from Seattle to Glendale, Polacheck’s Jewelers has been a cherished family-owned business in Southern California. Over the years, multiple locations thrived in the Greater Los Angeles area, but the enduring gem is the Calabasas store. In the late 1990s, developer Rick Caruso invited Arthur’s son, Stephen Polacheck, to bring the family’s legacy to a burgeoning community in what was then rustic horse country, making Polacheck’s one of the first retail anchors in the area.
Now, Stephen’s son, Brent Polacheck, helms the Calabasas store, with plans to pass the business to his children, continuing a multi-generational tradition. “We’re seeing a new generation of customers who are thoughtful and deliberate in their jewelry purchases,” Brent shares. “They choose Polacheck’s because it’s where their grandparents and parents shopped—a place where they’re investing in their own future.”
Building a Business in the LA Jewelry District
Ari Madilian and his wife Corina, co-founders of Single Stone, are also LA Jewelry District mainstays, with Ari starting his career in the diamond district before it was even what the diamond district is today. “Ari’s father was a developer downtown; he built the 625 Jewelry Plaza on Hill Street,” Corina explains. “He was a partner in St. Vincent’s and 607, so they were instrumental in converting some of those buildings into the jewelry exchanges that exist down on the ground floors.” Ari saw the rise of the LA jewelry district firsthand, and rather than follow in his father’s footsteps as a developer, he pivoted toward something a little more sparkly.
“The architects or someone from the city would say to Ari, ‘Can you get me a pair of two-carat diamonds for my wife,’ so he started as a diamond runner when he was nineteen years old,” shares Corina of her husband’s first exposure to the industry. “Eventually, he went off to Israel and started traveling and buying stones and became a loose diamond dealer.”
Single Stone has evolved a great deal since then, from a vintage jewelry restoration business in the 1980s to the remarkable private label it is today, sourcing and setting vintage stones into unique, handcrafted designs, all made in the LA jewelry district. “To this day, we still work with the old cuts,” says Ari. “That’s still what we love to do.” And Los Angeles is where they love to do it.
“We love Los Angeles for so many different reasons,” Corina explains. “It’s where we raised our family, and downtown is very nostalgic for Ari.” DTLA is where his father started his business, and he found his love for his own.
“We have often been asked to take our production somewhere else, but that’s not going to happen,” emphasizes Ari. The couple cherishes their L.A. roots, and they “love being able to be on top of it and see everything as it’s built,” says Corina. “We touch every piece that comes through. We are directly involved in all our production. We couldn’t imagine giving up that kind of control and sending it out somewhere else,” she laughs. “That just wouldn’t happen. It’s not in our personality.”
Native Angelenos Designing From the LA Jewelry District
Jewelry designer Anita Ko feels the same way about her hometown and the LA jewelry district. “I was born and raised in L.A., and I design from an L.A. perspective and lifestyle, so I cannot imagine starting anywhere else,” she tells Only Natural Diamonds. “When you’re from L.A., it’s in your blood, energy, and your heart.”
Ko started her namesake brand in 2006 and has grown exponentially since then, dressing celebrities like Sydney Sweeney and Hailey Bieber on the red carpet and beyond and selling her pieces to some of Hollywood’s biggest names. Like the Silvermans and the Madilians, the one thing that hasn’t changed for Ko is the L.A.-based setters and craftspeople she’s been working with since the start. “I love creating with them,” she says of her production team in the LA jewelry district. “They are all thrilled for my success, and they are all big brothers or uncles to me.”
As a mainstay in the LA jewelry district, Ko has grown close to many of her fellow designers over the years. “We go to dinner, compare notes, and share the trials and tribulations of the business,” she says. “I am very grateful I have a network of close friends who share my passion and understand the good times and not-so-good times.” The local jewelry community is certainly part of a broader group of creatives that call Los Angeles home, “and I know most of us support and root for each other,” says Ko.
The jewelry community spans beyond designers; Laura Freedman, a L.A. native and owner of the jewelry boutique Broken English in Brentwood, has also found camaraderie among her clients and neighbors. “They welcomed me in a way that was beyond special,” she says of when she first opened the store in 2006. Since then, “I’ve seen crops of kids grow up from elementary school to engagement,” Freedman says, explaining how she loves to be part of these special milestones in her clients’ lives.
Freedman works with designers from around the country, but being based in Los Angeles has shown her what a force the local jewelry community can be. “Every time I reached out to someone for help, whether it be a manufacturer or a repair person or a designer, I was met with so much openness and kindheartedness and willingness to help,” she says. “I think that’s what’s special about what we do.”
Lizzie Mandler, another born-and-bred Angelino, has also found solidarity in L.A.’s community of artists. “Fifteen years ago, there were very few of us; we all got to know each other and banded together,” she said. Since then, Mandler has seen it grow exponentially. “But the diamond district is significantly smaller here than it is in New York, so you’re seeing people more often, and you’re likely using similar people,” she says, referring to jewelry production.
Deciding to use a DTLA-based production team was an easy choice for Mandler. “I used to be there almost every day with my manufacturers, sourcing stones and overseeing production,” she recalls of the early days of her business in the LA jewelry district. As it’s grown, she says, “I still work closely with a lot of my vendors downtown, but a lot of them come to me now instead.”
Now, over a decade into her jewelry career, Mandler has a store on Sycamore in West Hollywood. “There was never a doubt in my mind that there was only L.A. for me,” she shares. “It’s home, and it’s a huge part of my identity and my upbringing and, in that way, also my brand.” Mandler recently welcomed a baby girl and plans to raise her family in Los Angeles, too.
California isn’t just Mandler’s home–it’s her muse. Within just a two-hour drive in any direction, “you can change your landscape and therefore change your mood, your environment and your inspiration, and what you’re visually intaking all the time,” she says. Ojai, in particular, is where Mandler likes to go to reset and find inspiration. “There is something important about changing your visual environment; it helps to shift your brain space, especially as a jewelry designer.”
A New Generation Finds Home in the LA Jewelry District
While some designers’ L.A. roots have them firmly placed in the City of Angels, newcomers have also found a home here in the LA jewelry district, like Maggi Simpkins, who moved to the area from Portland, Oregon, in her early twenties. “I fell into designing professionally originally for fashion jewelry, and then I took a job in the downtown diamond district working for this family-owned business,” she recalls. “It was just by proximity, just by being here, this whole world opened up.”
Since then, she’s built her namesake brand by being hands-on with her manufacturers and producers, making all her pieces in the Downtown LA jewelry district. “That’s been valuable for me to make sure that what I’m trying to create is being expressed in a way that ensures my vision is coming to life.”
Simpkins looks back at her early days in the industry with fondness and nostalgia. “To be a 20-year-old girl, not from Los Angeles, not born into a jewelry family, not having any prior access in that way, I was still able to become a part of the community,” she says. “That’s what holds a place in my heart.”
Retrouvai’s Kirsty Stone was on a similar journey when she moved to the area from Canada. “I’m from Toronto, so when I decided I was going to make this my career, I was like, ‘Either L.A. or New York,’” Stone explains. “I was just so fascinated by L.A. I had been here only a few times and just dived in and started coming downtown.”
Stone started her jewelry career on the production side, thanks to a friend in Jaipur who connected her to a manufacturer in DTLA. “I don’t know why he decided to take me under his wing,” she recalls of that fortuitous moment. “Decades ago, someone gave him a bench and took him under their wing, and so he was like, ‘I see something in you like someone saw in me.’”Stone learned the ins and outs of jewelry making from this mentor, from casting and polishing to working on the bench. “Unless you grow up with a family business, you don’t get that point of view. I was just so fascinated,” she said.
Stone hasn’t left the bustle of the LA Jewelry District since, headquartering Retrouvai in the St. Vincent Jewelry Center. “I love the industry, the grit, the production, that’s why my office is downtown,” she explains. “It could be anywhere; a lot of people don’t want to be downtown, but I do. I love it. Even though I live on the West Side.” Any Angeleno will tell you that’s one serious commute. But it’s worth it for Stone, who couldn’t imagine working anywhere else.
Stone, along with Mandler, is also part of Randi Molofsky’s For Future Reference showroom, which has introduced both of them to more designers and expanded their network. “It’s special because she tends to bring together collaborative designers,” says Mandler.
Molofsky started her career in New York City and said it took some time to adjust to the nuances of the Los Angeles creative scene, specifically how geographically spread everything is. “But I think it also gives you a little bit more freedom to be a little more creative, broaden your horizons a little bit, be inspired by nature, the landscape, all the great things around here where you’re not always in the office like you are in New York,” she muses. “I think that helps everybody be a little more creative in their practice.”
Molofsky is proud of the jewelry community she’s helped foster in L.A. and is even expanding her business into vintage with For Future Reference Vintage. “I have always been a collector of vintage jewelry, and years ago, I was introduced to Excalibur,” her partner in the new vintage venture. “That’s been a uniquely L.A., fun thing for me… there’s a very serious estate world here and so many interesting lives have been lived here, so the vintage world is amazing.”
Giving Back: LA Jewelry District Response to the Wildfires
It was during the Palisades and Pasadena fires in January of 2025 that Molofsky and all the designers here saw Greater Los Angeles come together. “We were very lucky our neighborhood was saved by the firefighters,” she says of her home near Runyon Canyon, perched just below where the Sunset fire broke out.
As founder of the For Future Reference showroom, Molofsky worked with her designers, including Mandler and Stone, to “put ideas together and help execute and help support in that way – that was our first instinct.” Mandler donated the proceeds from her Linked Necklace to the LAFD, the Pasadena Humane Society, and Baby2Baby, an L.A.-based nonprofit that provides basic necessities to children living in poverty. The Linked Necklace has a standing donation component, so switching the benefitting charity to help fire victims was a no-brainer.
The Linked Necklace has a standing donation component, so switching the benefitting charity to help fire victims was a no-brainer.
Mandler also donated a percentage of the proceeds from her website and store for January to the three organizations. “All three work in different areas of the crisis; we were trying to spread it a little bit across everyone,” she said. Stone auctioned off her Magna bracelet, donating the $10,000 auction price to the LAFD Foundation.
Maggi Simpkins, who was displaced after the fires, also got involved in auctioning off a piece for charity. She worked with Grace Lavarro of Jewels by Grace and jeweler Mia Moross via a GoFundMe to benefit individuals and families who lost their homes in the Eaton fire, as well as the LAFD. They raised over $150,000 through the auction, to which Simpkins donated her Locket Pendant. “It was inspiring and exciting to see everyone rally,” she recalls. “It was remarkable to watch how many people came together during this time and showed up for one another.”
It was remarkable to watch how many people came together during this time and showed up for one another.”
“Los Angeles is not an easy city to survive in,” she elaborates. “When things like the fires happen, you’re just reminded of how resilient and how strong people are.”
Baylee Ann Zwart of Azlee Jewelry knew she wanted to find a way to give back, too, despite being displaced by the Malibu fires. Zwart chose to donate a portion of all proceeds to the Pasadena Humane Society and the American Red Cross for the year. “One of our team members is from Pasadena and is very familiar with that humane society, so it felt like a natural fit for us, too,” she says.
How the LA Jewelry District Came Together After Tragedy
In addition to the auction, Stone got involved on a personal level, working with a friend based in New York City to sponsor specific families who lost everything. “I feel like I was just the connector, but my friend in New York was soliciting all of her contacts,” she says modestly. “I think a lot of the people in these communities are people that would feel, ‘I’m not worthy of help,’ because other people are always less fortunate.” But Stone understood how to offer help even to those who couldn’t ask for it. “It’s not charity,” she says. “It’s one community helping another.”
Laura Freedman of Broken English also saw firsthand how the fires affected her friends and neighbors, many of whom came into her life through the industry and her store. “I probably know over a hundred people, including my own family, who were touched in one way, shape, or form by the fires,” she shares. “They needed receipts, they needed certificates of authenticity, they needed whatever insurance they needed to get.” But beyond the paperwork, Broken English became a place where “they could come in and feel seen and heard because they had gone through such a horrible time.”
The Madilians of Single Stone jumped into action. “We also own another store called Serafina, which is a lifestyle store. Right away, we set up a donation site within both stores,” Corina explains. “We had great support from our clients and our vendors. We gathered everything from diapers and formula to hygiene and clothing. We personally donated a ton of clothing. Not only did we get it to distribution sites at the very beginning, but we also set up a donation site within our store for people to come through and pick up things they needed,” she said.
Single Stone clients showed up for the Madilians, which was “inspiring to see… we had clients that drove out two hours to come and bring us carloads of things,” she shares. “We’ve created a community of people who appreciate what we do, and so they showed up for us. Because of that, we were able to give more.”
The Madilians were touched by the outpouring of love and are starting to see a sense of hope after the loss. “When someone comes in and picks out something and they’re like, ‘I feel so good or I love this,’ you give them a little bit of normalcy back, just a tiny bit.”
Anita Ko was sadly one of the unlucky ones who lost her home to the fires. She has leaned heavily on her jewelry friends during tough times. “I think the L.A. jewelry community has been great,” she shares. “I have to especially recognize Jacquie Aiche, who sent me so many things to share with my neighbors, and Octavia Elizabeth, who sent me a suitcase filled with beautiful clothing.” Ko isn’t focused yet on rebuilding, “but I think all of us victims have just been trying to get through things day by day,” she adds.
The Future of the LA Jewelry District Is Bright
In the wake of a natural disaster, navigating insurance claims can be daunting. Polacheck’s Jewelers goes above and beyond to ease this burden for their clients. “We maintain detailed records to provide accurate information for insurance claims, helping our customers process them quickly and efficiently,” Brent explains.
This commitment stems from Polacheck’s deeply rooted ethos of care, which fosters lasting relationships with clients. “When a customer mentions a pair of earrings, we remember,” says Polacheck. “We recall the joy of that moment—not just for them, but for us, too. By providing the necessary documentation, we help them piece their lives back together, one step at a time.”
Freedman noticed that photographs and jewelry were often the only items people grabbed as they had to evacuate. “Jewelry is the physical embodiment of all of your precious moments and milestones,” she muses. “They are the talismans that you take with you through all of life’s experiences. Those are the things that matter.”
Jewelry is the physical embodiment of all of your precious moments and milestones.They are the talismans that you take with you through all of life’s experiences. Those are the things that matter.
Simpkins, too, has found inspiration in seeing how Los Angeles has come together after the devastation. “There is a lot of heart in the city, and I think that when things like the fires happen, you’re just reminded of how resilient and how strong people are,” she says. “Despite the devastation of the fires, it was nice to see so many people come together and be reminded of the humanity that does exist in the city.”
Simpkins sees her community coming back stronger and better than ever, despite the loss. “I look forward to getting to that place, but there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s coming.”
