The Quality Makers: Jennifer Fisher of Jennifer Fisher Jewelry

If the fabulousness of New York City could choose to be represented by one person, it would be Jennifer Fisher. 

When she’s not running errands on the city streets, or whipping up her own salt blends, she’s running the uber successful, customizable fine jewelry brand Jennifer Fisher Jewelry, which—it’s fair to say—has been a god-led venture of destiny, fate, and just really good taste. 

After 18 years of building a notoriously notable high-end jewelry brand, Jennifer Fisher is at an inflection point of significant growth. We were lucky enough to catch her during this transition, and she kept it real through and through. *Puts on gold hoops* Okay, let’s spill the gold-laden tea.

TQE: Jennifer Fisher Jewelry is the “It Girl” of the elevated-but-cool jewelry space. How did you get your start into jewelry?

JF: This is going to seem like a long origin story, but I swear it’ll all make sense in the end.

I literally fell into the jewelry space. I studied Business Marketing at USC and thought I wanted to be a publisher. I found out really quickly that I didn’t want to do that, and then I started as a wardrobe stylist in LA, eventually moving to New York to be with my husband.

As life would have it, I got diagnosed with a desmoid tumor, which is a soft tissue / scar tissue tumor that can metastasize if given blood flow. I immediately had to go through 12 rounds of high-dose chemo to prevent the tumor from aggressively spreading (which can then make it super hard to resect).

Luckily, the chemo worked, but when I wanted to get pregnant, my oncologist said absolutely not since tumor-growth was directly connected to higher levels of estrogen. I was told I would need to use a surrogate if I wanted to have my own child, which—at the time—was illegal in New York, so my husband and I decided to go through the process in California to be closer to our families. So we went through the whole process, which took so much time and effort—finding the right surrogate, implanting, getting pregnant, all while I’m on hormones for the egg-retrieval process.

After all of that, our surrogate got pregnant, saw a heartbeat, knew it was going to be a boy, and then lost the baby. At that point, I decided to do IVF on my own (unsuccessfully) back in NYC.

That summer, I got pregnant naturally and told my oncologist, “I’m keeping this baby.”

Here’s how it all ties together: When my perfectly healthy baby boy was born, people were giving me “Mom” jewelry to represent him, and I was like, “Um, this is not for me.” I just wanted a heavy gold chain that said his full name. So, with over 10 years of being resourceful as a stylist, I went up to the jewelry district, knocked on doors, and found someone to make me a very simple dog tag with my son’s name on it—Shane.

People would see it and tell me how big it was, and I was like, “YEAH!” and it became an instant conversation piece on set. I would tell the story of my son, and all of a sudden, everyone wanted one. Naturally, I started making them for people on set. 

Because I was a stylist, I had celebrity hair + makeup people who were friends of mine. Through this grapevine, Uma Thurman heard about my charms and wanted one. I obviously made her one, and on the same day that she wore my necklace, she was also featured on the cover of Glamour Magazine. Then things just blew up.

All of a sudden, I was doing trunk shows, invoices were laid out all over the bedroom. My husband was like, “You need a website. This is a business.” I started to offer different styles with different chains at different lengths, knowing that people want to choose their own stuff. At that time, absolutely no one was selling direct-to-consumer, customizable fine jewelry, so I just forged ahead. 

Now, my son is 19 years old (I have a daughter, too).

TQE: What are some things you consider when designing your pieces?

JF: I mean, at this point in Jennifer Fisher Jewelry has gone through so many different iterations. Right now, for example, we’re going through a reduction (we have too many pieces). I’m in the middle of reimagining the brand. I wear jewelry differently than I did a long time ago and want to change it up to reflect my own personal style.

That’s how The Hoops began. I love hoops. I used to have Sade on my wall and was like, “I have to make hoops one day.”

In general, I go by what I want to start wearing and who I am. I can only hope that people feel the same way. At the end of the day, I’m a consumer who likes fashion…and high fashion! I like to see what’s coming, I follow it intensely. I like to think if I’m going to be buying that next season, what will I wear with it?

I don’t want to be that designer that makes some purple necklace that people are like, “Oh! That’s that purple necklace from that event last week.” I want to be the necklace that someone wore three times a week that week. I want my jewelry to be the jewelry on the nightstand vs. the jewelry in your safe or something that’s too much of a statement. I wear the same handbag, shoes, and blazer over and over again, so I want to imbue the same feeling of value and wearability into my pieces. 

TQE: How has Jennifer Fisher Jewelry evolved since you began? What was the OG vision for the brand?

JF: I started this out of my bedroom with two newborns. I never expected it to turn into what it is. It has changed in so many ways, but it also hasn’t in so many ways. I always knew this would turn into something I wanted to do forever, and I’ve just continued to evolve and change it so I could have that opportunity. 

Over the years, I’ve also seen that a lot of people don’t get to see a lot of different, more normal sides of others—especially on social media. Like, I’m a working mom running a business, and didn’t have any outside funding or capital for 18 years (regardless of what you see on Instagram). I think people respect that I’ve put the work in, and if they don’t, I don’t even care anymore.

TQE: How do you strike the perfect balance between luxe pieces that are also fun and playful?

JF: I think it’s a matter of taking a novelty that you see for the season and playing off of it—like my Puffy Heart Earrings. I thought no one would want to buy them, but we literally cannot keep them in stock. I think it’s because the design is so clean, not unlike my Hoops and Charms. 

I try to make things that are on trend, but aren’t the trend. Like hearts, everyone loves hearts. You can wear them year-round unlike a flag earring, for example. I try to think of things that people can justify wearing over and over again for the price point that feel new, cool, and different.