Meet the jewellery designers using luxury homes as retail space

Newcastle-based fine-jewellery brand Kate & Kole turns to luxury residential homes to showcase their brand in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – a fruitful experiment that’s bringing more business their way.

On the morning we meet in Melbourne’s Brighton, the sun is shining brightly inside a luxurious penthouse apartment they’ve settled into for a week of client appointments.

It’s a spacious open planned modern architectural home filled with tactile furnishings, from a creamy white coloured boucle L-shaped couch to a latte velvet trimmed Barcelona-inspired chair, artworks hang in curated abundance, and mid-century-furniture is dotted throughout.

It’s a hint of ‘Architectural Digest’ meets ‘Wallpaper’ magazine; leaving one ever curious of who actually calls this home. Apparently, it’s the architect himself – who designed the entire building of apartments and kept the top floor to himself.

The calming energy of this private residential space is a perfect segue to embrace some retail therapy.

Kate & Kole, a brand started by two friends Sara Spence and Madalynne Clifton 10 years ago, have cleverly chimed into the residential home to sell their shackles. These are no ordinary pieces; they’re avant-garde statement rings and earrings plus bangles, traditional, lab-grown diamond rings and top-quality silver-smithery at its Australian-designed finest.  

Kate & Kole is proving a hit among a younger generation of jewellery loves – with the likes of model Helena Vestergaard and influencer Lauren Burns on board the journey.

At the heart of their purpose is to create custom-made wedding and engagement rings, but the duo have launched a design-savvy side collection, too. Those pieces are well-priced and gaining traction on socials – hence the desire to take their brand on a road trip with a difference.

The all-female team (there are more than 20 working at their headquarters in Newcastle) is all about capturing the modern Australian spirit – someone who wants a hint of luxury without breaking the bank when they do so. It’s working – and the introduction of lab grown diamonds in their repertoire five years ago is also a positive step.

“The demand from customers has led us to finding locations around the country and showing our jewellery in a home setting,” Clifton says.

“We try and look at what unique properties there are in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – next tier locations that aren’t Airbnb, and those often used for media events and photo shoots.

“We want a residential feel when showing our product, so the customers feel instantly at ease, and to find a home that has a level of wow factor and is representative of the jewellery we are creating.”

According to co-founder Sara Spence, who did dabble in jewellery and object design at university before starting the business, finding a residential space makes sense to an online business.

“Online has always been our focus, but we also love a tactile space and we want our customers to go and experience it there,” Spence says.

“Having an immersive architectural home is key to what we do – a physical element and expression of the brand is so important in telling our story.”

From the moodiness of Melbourne or the bright natural light of Brisbane to the New York loft style of Sydney, they’ve hosted many in the past few years – with more to come. Customers travel from as far as Perth and Tasmania to access their residential showings.

“We get a lot of emails of customers asking where are we going next,” Clifton says.

“Taking our experience into other people’s homes is about conjuring a feeling of place, purpose and familiarity.”

When it comes to designing the collections, the process begins with Spence, who then collaborates with Clifton to make sure the pieces she’s designing align with the brand. With so many jewellery brands on the market, it’s this bespoke collaboration and intimacy to the brand that has been their secret weapon.

When the friends started their business, they never thought they’d be traveling the country taking their collections to the major cities.

“We started the business we were both looking for a creative outlet at the time. We were friends and our backgrounds lent themselves to coming together in a beautiful partnership,” says Clifton.

“We engaged a company in New York to have a 3D printed ring made – an experimental piece – and it inspired us to create the brand in a very lo-fi way at the time.

“We then launched with a small collection and built things from there. The first collection was based around female entrepreneurs and our second was inspired by Sara’s hometown of New Zealand. As we grew, the engagement and wedding band space has become a huge area of opportunity for us and the reason we travel so much.”

The pair admit that buying jewellery is a huge decision to make. With the majority of their customers in their late 20s and 30s and in the process of either buying their first home or apartment and starting a family, having a collection that’s affordable and aspirational is what matters most to the Kate & Kole founders.

That’s why residential pop-ups feel the most conducive to their repertoire.

“We want clients to walk into these spaces and feel connected at every touchpoint,” says Clifton.

“Buying jewellery is a huge decision, so the smell, look and feel and lighting of a space is key in creating the right environment for them. From the way the light streams inside an apartment in the morning to the dusky mood of the afternoon, it’s about memories and conversations that feel natural in these intimate spaces.”

The working mums won’t rule out a bricks and mortar store just yet either, but the internet has been their calling so far.

“Being online and a digital business gives us access that is limitless,” says Spence.

“We have built the brand slowly and also had kids and raising families and done this at our pace. We always talk about opening a shop, and never say never. We love the concept of a physical location to represent the brand.

“It might be more likely that our residences become more permanent like a pop-up for a few weeks or months.  Retail isn’t in the immediate future, but making people feel comfortable within a home setting is more where it’s at.”

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