A Conversation with Peggy Grosz at Assael

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Last week I had the opportunity to interview Peggy Grosz, Senior Vice President at Assael . Peggy has worked in the jewellery industry for over thirty years and very few people come close to the extensive and in depth knowledge she has about the jewellery industry in America and about fine and high jewellery, precious gemstones and especially pearls.

Just a day before I was scheduled to interview her, Peggy had an Instagram Live talk with award winning jewellery insider Katerina Perez, where she shared some new jewellery pieces from Assael’s highly successful The Colors and Bubble Collections. And what a treat that was for pearl jewellery lovers! Each and every piece was swoon-worthy to say the least, and the fresh and innovative jewellery designs were nothing less than spectacular. However, what really came through, to me, was Peggy’s genuine joy in showing us the rare and beautiful jewellery pieces being produced at Assael’s jewellery workshops.

This impression was reinforced the next day, during my telephone call with her. I found Peggy to be warm, positive and very insightful, someone who loves what she does and is extremely passionate about her work. However, I also realised something else. That is, while Peggy is deeply passionate about Assael, this passion is tempered by patience-nothing is rushed and everything is planned out to the smallest detail to ensure that Assael remains a market leader and produces only the very finest pieces of pearl jewellery.

In our conversation we talked about Assael’s jewellery collections, design and creative processes at Assael, their jewellery collaborations in recent years and how the core values of the company are translated into their fine and high jewellery pieces.

Assael stands for strong core values about pearls and craftsmanship. Could you elaborate on that?

At our very core is high quality. We specialise in fine to very fine to gem quality pearls. We know who we are, and we don’t cross over to middle to lower quality. We also believe you can’t be all things to all people. We know what our strength is and always remember how the company started with Salvadore Assael and his eye for high quality pearls. However, high quality doesn’t always mean high prices or prices above a certain point. It just means that it has to be the finest in its category. For example, we carry smaller Akoya pearls and of course they are much lower in price than large South Sea pearls or Conch pearls, but they are very fine gem quality Akoya pearls. So, it’s not about price range, it’s about where that item stands in quality. The same goes for craftsmanship. There is limited production. You cannot put a beautiful, very fine pearl into a piece of jewellery that isn’t made the way that it should be. It takes more labour and very often different methods such as hand craftsmanship and hand forging as opposed to casting, to produce our jewellery pieces. We do whatever is needed for that piece to be executed in the best way possible. Our focus is, and always has been, on excellent craftsmanship.

How does jewellery design and jewellery creation take place at Assael?

Most of our jewellery design is done in house and there is continuous collaboration within the office. My primary responsibility is design and product development. For example, our Colors Collection, with coloured gemstones matching each pearl’s colour overtones, that’s me! What I do is try to look equally at showing off the beauty of pearls, doing something that others aren’t doing while keeping the concept and the look within fashion. It can be classic or not classic, but it has to be different or special in some way. We believe in adding something new that other parts of the industry aren’t doing. Of course, we specialise in strands and supplying loose pearls to within the trade but in our design collections we really do unique, different and innovative things that fit with the overall with style and fashion of the time. Our style is generally a cleaner aesthetic. Assael has always done elegant things that sit within fashion.

For example, the Colors Collection came about because we knew that in recent years, the consumer had become more educated about different coloured gemstones. They wanted to see gemstones such as tourmaline, spinel, aquamarine in jewellery rather than just ruby, emerald, sapphire and coloured diamonds. So, a few years ago, Mrs. Assael and I went to the Tucson Gem Show where we found coloured gemstones that worked with a multitude of pearl colour tones. There were gemstones of the same tones that brought out the colour tones of the pearls or complemented the colour tones of the pearls. When we launched the Colors Collection no one had been doing that as a full collection concept. To start with, we wanted to bring out the colour tones in pearls that people were not necessarily aware of, the pinks, the greens, the silver blues.  At first the reaction was curiosity in a very positive way, and it didn’t take long for the pieces to start selling because there was a comfort level with colour. I think people were also interested in the fact that pearls could be worn in new ways. In fact, our newest addition to The Colors Collection is a turquoise with a light golden, wood tone material running through it. The moment I saw, it I knew that golden pearls had to be mixed with it. We also believe that black and white are colours. Since we are a New York City company, we are urban and black and white is an urban combination. Very exciting Black and white things are also about to happen!

Are Jewellery Collections at Assael ongoing or are they limited to only a certain number of designs initially decided?

Jewellery collections evolve. For example, most of the pieces in the Colors Collection are one of a kind but you can easily see the theme and the connection between the pieces. But collection evolves just as fashion does. Recently we started doing ear clips that are just button style on the ear, within the Colors Collection. A button style earring had not been in the fashion vocabulary for a long while. Until recently everything had been a drop or a chandelier. We felt that there was a place for button style earrings again, in a modern way, so we introduced them, and we’ve had a good reaction. So, you can see an evolution in size, shape and colour but the pieces are still part of the Colors Collection. Similarly, we are always looking to add to our Classics Collection. We are always exploring new ways to wear strands, mixing sizes and types of pearls and especially for the Classics Collection, we always want to show the consumer how easily pearls can be worn with the style of any woman in any situation, from the most casual to the most formal and everything in between. All these things guide design which leads to the collection evolving. In fact, another new piece of jewellery being introduced is pearl hair clips. This is another example of the new classics and I think they will look wonderful in hair.

How does being a women-led company today, help shape the direction of Assael?

Christina Assael who owns the company, has a very clear vision of staying true to the high end of our business. Being a women run company, with Christina Assael at the helm and with me in Design and Product Development, we see pearls making a different way than the classic vision of pearls and the limitation of what has been considered desirable. For example, the classic belief was that Tahitian pearls should be dark grey, black or peacock (showing a multitude of colour). However, now when we see a strand of beautiful silver rosé Tahitian or deep aubergine or deep green Tahitian, we can visualise the woman who will look good in that colour or loves that colour and so we are changing the way pearls are appreciated and worn. Also, at a  jewellery  company with a classic material like pearls, the first gem ever set into a piece of jewellery, we feel there is immense scope for new classics- jewellery pieces that are not in the fashion arena like our Colors Collection but that women from all ages can wear decade after decade and still feel there is something fresh or innovative about the piece. The hardest thing to do in design is to create a new classic. A new classic would be something that would always stay in style and be its own thing. Good jewellery design can produce new classics and as a woman led jewellery company, that is what we try to do all the time. 

What are the factors you consider when you are choosing a jewellery designer to collaborate with?

First is someone who can feel the way we feel about pearls as a focal point of jewellery. Someone who loves pearls and someone whose aesthetic for design style is compatible with pearls. I do believe that all design styles are compatible with pearls, but the designer needs to feel this too. Second, I think its someone who can bring something completely relevant yet different to the Assael selections and someone who understands the company. Innovation is important for us. With new designs we don’t want to follow anything else that’s going on. We want to add to the world of jewellery with design and not follow it and not borrow from other current things.

Could you talk a little bit about the Jewellery Collaboration Assael has had in recent years?

In recent years, our first collaboration was with Angela Cummings. Angela Cummings is a very well known and respected jewellery designer. When she was no longer at Tiffany & Co. and Bergdorf Goodman’s, she agreed to do a collection at Assael. The collection is very much her aesthetic. It put pearls in the foreground and we still sell many of those pieces today because the designs are enduring.

Then we collaborated with jewellery designer Julie Parker who was also a well known activist for endangered species. Pearls have always easily been incorporated into jewellery designs depicting animals. So, this was a natural collaboration- Assael has been known as the finest in pearls and Julie Parker has been known for her work in saving endangered species. Her designs were specifically of endangered and critically endangered species. Assael let Julie Parker choose her pearls and design her own pieces, so that was an easy collaboration as well. Again, pieces from that collection continue to sell well. 

The next outside collaboration is with Sean Gilson which is ongoing. The objective of this collaboration was to do something very modern yet timeless. Sean Gilson’s Bubble Collection for Assael Pearls brings to my mind Coco Chanel- not the design or the pieces themselves but the concept that pearls alone could be very modern and fashionable. Those descriptives are totally applicable to Sean Gilson for Assael but the actual pieces are very different. The Pearl Bubbles are a contemporary version of clusters but never done quite like this before because the pearls are not drilled through. If you look at the Bubble Rings you can see many pearls, but you see the shank going into only one or two pearls, so how are the other pearls there? They are mechanically connected in a way that is invisible and proprietary to Assael and Sean Gilson. Sean is not only the designer but the craftsman of these pieces. In fact, he is just starting work on a Pearl Bubble Tiara. This will be a modern tiara- fun, interesting and very wearable by a bride. Tiaras have seen a renaissance and we wanted to do a tiara that would fit both the modern and classic look at the same time.

When you are designing a piece for any of your collections, what is the starting point? Are you looking at the jewellery market or is it the pearl?

It’s usually the pearl. It could start with another material or a gemstone that immediately causes us to think of the pearls that we have. We are a pearl company, so the idea is always to highlight the pearl as the star or showing their gorgeous variety. As far as the market goes, it is absolutely a fact that relevance is the market. We all know there are beautiful pieces of jewellery in history that you will not see anyone wearing today because it is not relevant to fashion or to our times. So, the market is certainly part of the process but first and foremost is showing off of our gorgeous array of pearls, whether they are known or not so well known, whether they are popular yet or not. Our creative process always focuses on showing off the pearl.

You said in your interview yesterday with Katerina Perez that “Every woman is a Pearl Woman.” I find that to be beautiful and very profound. Could you tell us why you said that?

Every woman is a pearl woman, whether they know it or not. Many women think of pearls in a limited way of round, white orbs to be worn only in strands. But pearls can be so organic in shape and their colours can be so varied and the personalities of the pearls are so different and the ways they can be worn are so varied that whether a woman is aware of it yet or not, every woman is a pearl woman.

Thank you, Peggy, for taking out the time in your busy day and talking with me about all things pearls and especially Assael. With so many wonderful and unique projects coming close to fruition at Assael, I can say with surety that pearl lovers have some fabulous things to look forward to at Assael.

Featured Image: Tropical Luxe Collection Necklace, with South Sea Cultured pearls, Diamonds, Multicoloured Sapphires and Tsavorite Garnets, Set in 18K Gold, Assael.

All images used in this post are the property of Assael. Any person or organization not affiliated with Assael may not use, copy, alter or modify any of the images used in this post, without the advance written permission of Assael.