Olivier Reza travels the world to find inspiration for his artisanal gems, but sometimes it’s just as easily found in his Sagaponack backyard. The CEO of high jewelry house REZA spends as much time as he can spare out East, otherwise residing in New York, or his native Paris. Last Friday, he and CULTURED Editor-in-Chief gathered a coterie of tastemakers and private clients for a dinner celebrating his creations and intimate ties to the East End.
Guests—including artists Lucien Smith and Sheree Hovsepian, interior designer Alyssa Kapito, the Mack Art Foundation’s Christine Mack, spatial designer Eny Lee Parker, Artist Plate Project’s Michelle Hellman and A Hug From the Art World founder Adam Cohen, Another Tomorrow founder Vanessa Barboni Hallik, Entourage Collection’s Lily Liebel, patrons Michelle and Jason Rubell, designer Lisa Perry, and fashion and beauty commentator Irina Kro Eicke—were seated for a golden hour meal prepared by acclaimed New York chef Olivier Cheng at a stunning Sagaponack residence. Rolling bales of hay littered across the horizon set the backdrop for a selection of REZA jewelry encased in glass stands reminiscent of a fine art museum—but this one in open air.
Along the floral-adorned table, set with seared halibut and New York strips, guests could be seen discussing their summer plans, latest projects, and REZA’s collection. As the sun set, Franco-British singer and songwriter Dolly Lowe emerged to sing a selection of her music, standing in the garden in glittering REZA jewels. The dinner came to a close as the evening light fully disappeared from the horizon, and attendees filtered out into what was now the starry Sagaponack night.
After the parade of cocktails, delicacies, and fine jewels, it’s not difficult to understand Olivier Reza’s belief that “beauty is everywhere.” “No one has a monopoly on beauty,” he told CULTURED for the magazine’s first Hamptons issue of the summer. In 2020, that conviction is part of what led the jeweler to move his father’s company from Paris, where it had been based since the 1950s, to the East Coast hub where he lived.
Over the past few years, REZA has distinguished itself as a purveyor of high jewelry adhering to three design pillars: that the work is sculptural, industrial, and eternal. Nowhere were these tenets more tangible than set against the natural elegance of the Hamptons landscape—a sight to behold and a night to remember.
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