Jo Latham Fine Jewelry’s new boutique is designed to offer clients a warm Texan welcome in a space that feels elegant yet approachable for any jewelry lover.
The boutique is located within Fort Worth apparel and accessories store You Are Here, which recently moved to 4804 Camp Bowie Blvd. Joanna Latham, founder of the Jo Latham brand, maintains a longtime business partnership with the retailer.
“Last year they were busting at the seams and needed to upgrade the location. A new space opened up a couple of blocks down,” says Latham. “We doubled our square footage, and I had an opportunity to carve out a fine jewelry salon inside the space.”
With 700 square feet to play with, Latham says she now can give the jewelry designers she sells more room to get noticed. She designed her store-within-a-store with her interior-designer friend and business partner H. Reese Beddingfield. (Latham has a jewelry boutique inside Beddingfield’s store Reserve in Amarillo, Texas.) They worked together to create a refined look while embracing the new location’s more industrial feel.
“It has lofty, very high ceilings alongside these rugged elements, like concrete floors and exposed ductwork,” Latham says. “We tried to marry that with a very elegant experience, with a crane mural on the wallpaper and comfortable seating. We want it to feel like my living room, where you’re invited in and stay a while.”
A vintage brass coffee table in the Jo Latham space within You Are Here has crane accents on it. Latham and Beddingfield also included a chaise longue and two Biedermeier chairs. Further contributing to the living-room feel, Latham says, are two rugs: a sisal rug with a vintage rug layered on top, for maximum visual softness.
Vintage jewelry cases also are a main attraction in the new Jo Latham boutique. Latham has five horizontal and three vertical cases, which she fills with fine jewelry, some displayed on art deco–inspired mannequins. The goal was to make eye-grabbing displays for the jewelry that compel people to stop and shop, Latham says.
“I started with private client sales and trunk shows, so I learned how to show jewelry in informal settings: Everyone had access to the jewelry—there were no barriers,” she explains. “I try to re-create that by pulling you into this space where I can take the jewelry out of the cases and we can try it on.
“Even if someone isn’t ready to buy that piece today, I love telling them about the designer, its production, everything about it,” adds Latham.
The cranes as well as other bird and butterfly motifs throughout the store and her brand’s merchandising represent Latham’s message to clients, since birds and butterflies are associated with taking flight.
“It’s a theme for me as well. It’s about growth and starting a new chapter,” Latham says. “For all of us, the sky’s the limit.”
Top: Joanna Latham recently opened a store-within-a-store for her Jo Latham Fine Jewelry company in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photos courtesy of Jo Latham Fine Jewelry)
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