Queen Elizabeth Meets Chanel

© Lauren Doyle / MFb

It's been a long time since Stephanie Anne graduated from FIU with a degree in interior design. Twenty years, to be exact. In that time, she's made a name for herself in Dallas as a high-end interior designer, designing spaces and furniture and decor. So it's a funny thing to find her in Neiman Marcus in front a display of her own jewelry. It makes you wonder: Does this woman ever sleep?

The answer, of course, is yes. (You can't look that good without sleep.) The longer answer is that jewelry making is (or was) her hobby. 

She started designing jewelry after taking a few sculpture classes and finding that she wanted to create things that she could hold in her hand, things she could wear. So she started learning how to manipulate metal – how to cut and solder and hammer and twist – and adorning those pieces with gemstones, until she had a few pieces that she wanted to wear.

Then, people started buying the jewelry right off her body. Stephanie Anne would step on an elevator wearing a necklace, and step off without it. A shrewd businesswoman, she knew she had something. She displayed a few pieces in her Dallas showroom, and they sold out – over and over again. So Stephanie Anne made more, and more and more.

Then, on a whim, she called Neiman Marcus, which is based in Dallas, to see if they might be interested in taking a look at the jewelry. The executive at Neiman's knew who she was – her showroom, in a high-end Dallas shopping district, bears her name. They gave her 15 minutes. Stephanie Anne ended up staying an hour and a half.

The executives at Neiman Marcus loved her pieces. And we can see why. They are big and bold, intricately designed and colorful. They are, Stephanie Anne says, "Queen Elizabeth meets Chanel."

Stephanie Anne is infatuated with period design – anything from Byzantine to Victorian – but she also loves clean, chic, modern design. Her pieces offer the best of both worlds. The gemstones, which are all hand cut and tumbled, are simple, gorgeous, and unapologetically large. The chains, rings and pendants, which are made of gold-dipped brass, are hand cut, hammered, bent, soldered and sculpted. There are no machines in this process. Stephanie Anne's pieces are pure, handmade goodness.

The best part is how functional the pieces are. You can buy a long chain and wrap it around a couple times for a simple, chunky, look. Or, you can buy as many pendants as you can afford, and easily change the look of the single necklace from casual and demure (the single large tumbled white quartz pendant) to outrageously fabulous (the Bishop's cross).

But it's not all about big heavy jewelry. "I make pieces of all sizes and weights," Stephanie Anne explains. Because not everybody wants a big heavy necklace.

For her, it's all about comfort. "The experience of interior design has made me very aware of detail – and of comfort...For so long with women fashion was about looking good. But fashion is so much more than that. I really think it's time that we start choosing fashion that makes us feel good."

Toward that, Stephanie Anne has also started designing a line of clothing. Look for that soon. For now, look for her in the jewelry case at select South Florida Neiman Marcus locations. If you're lucky, you might even get a chance to meet Stephanie Anne herself.

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