Jewelry designer Jade Ruzzo's love of the craft began with a keepsake from her dad. “My father was a drummer and just a really cool guy, and he had this amazing sterling silver cuff with turquoise that was handmade by a friend in the '70s,” she says over the phone on a slow summer afternoon. He eventually gave her the piece, which she now counts as a family heirloom. “That was probably the first piece I felt was sacred.”
Ruzzo wasn’t always in the jewelry space: after studying fashion at FIT, she worked in advertising at Condé Nast—most notably at GQ—before going to Snapchat to work with luxury clients like Chanel and Burberry. It was family that made her course-correct: Ruzzo suddenly lost her father in 2015. “I was very close with him, so I struggled for a while trying to find ways to honor him and keep him close. Jewelry presented itself as a way to do that.” The birth of her daughter in 2019 added another layer of intention to her venture to make modern jewelry worthy of being passed down. Her pieces, however, never feel overly sentimental.
“We refer to the look as bold minimalism. Everything has a little bit of an attitude to it,” says Ruzzo of her design language. Round shapes and epic proportions recall power-dressing of the '80s, while stones like tourmaline, moonstone, and sapphires add both levity and color to the designs. The label also has range: her wares can go from the dazzling Tennessee Ring dripped out in pavé diamonds to the stately Vic Ring in green tourmaline, which is Ruzzo’s own signature everyday piece. “I design things based on what I want to wear. If it's not something that I would put on, then it's not something that I would ever produce,” she adds.
Recently, a shift out of her gold comfort zone has brought the designer to working with platinum, a white-hued and exceedingly rare material. "The weighty feel and naturally white color really lend themselves to my work beautifully," says Ruzzo. "Rather than working with white diamonds for my newer platinum pieces—a more expected pairing—I wanted to push myself even further and explore different colors and textures. It was a leap for me but really opened my eyes to the versatility of the metal and how cool and fresh it can feel with colored stones." Three one-of-a-kind platinum pieces by Ruzzo are available exclusively at Elyse Walker, including, as the designer says, "a fabulously oversized Cymbal pendant featuring a gorgeous brown zircon on a leather cord."
Her latest collection entitled “Percussion” brings her personal story to the forefront. Dedicated to her father, drumming paraphernalia is reimagined as wearable art. Oversized oblong earrings recall cowbells, while cymbals are reimagined into statement pendants. Personal touch doesn’t stop with the design: all stones are hand-selected and naturally vary, individuating the work. Bringing this level of personality and quality to market has been a journey for Ruzzo.
“These are luxury items, and it took me a while to not feel like I needed to either apologize for the price or try to put things on sale. As soon as I stopped feeling that pressure and decided to lay the groundwork for a heritage brand, things fell into place.” The response has been palpable—Ruzzo was named one of Vogue’s “New Designers to Know” in 2023 and counts Oprah amongst her customers. She notes that her buyers approach pieces as collectibles, not as items caught in the trend cycle.
“It's like art,” she adds. “How you're feeling is going to affect how it speaks to you.” Her ethos has resulted in the designer’s very own modern heirlooms worthy of wearers to come.
