There’s something about watching Instagram videos of jewelers at work, especially when they are melting down gold into a liquid. The way this precious metal moves at this moment is one of the many things about jewelry that inspires designer Rose Costolo.
Costolo may be new to the industry, but she’s already showing a deft hand at creating standout silhouettes. With her new brand, Costolo, the designer says she wants to take what nature created, whether it is gold, diamonds, or other luxurious materials, and stretch them to their full potential.
She’s taking her clients along for this ride, introducing them to what she calls “wearable sculptures” of metal and gemstones. Some might call it dopamine dressing or wearing things that make you feel great when you put them on and when you get positive feedback from people as a result.
For example, there are the rounded textures and uneven layers of her Serotonin ring, the movement on the wearer’s ear with her Liquid Gold earrings, and strong, solid lines of her Dopamine pendants.
For Costolo, dopamine translates to joy and serotonin means wellness—all things that this young designer says are guiding themes in her work.
“My designs all originate from the elements of nature and the atomic structures of the precious materials I work with,” Costolo says. “Everything I create is meant to make you [do a] double take when you see it, prioritizing modern originality and treating jewelry as wearable sculptures.”
Costolo has worked exclusively on her jewelry designs for the past two years, completing an apprenticeship of sorts after her 2020 graduation from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with her newfound family at Angel City Jewelers in Los Angeles, where her brand is based. Costolo is also a GIA-certified jewelry professional.
The brand launched its website in late June, and designs are already selling out, Costolo says. That proof of concept comes out of her chops as a jeweler as well as her ability to understand social media. That’s something she may have a better handle on than most new designers, given her father is Dick Costolo, the former Twitter CEO.
“I love Instagram as a visual storytelling platform for my brand. The opportunity to attract a customer’s eye with my visual feed is super exciting in this line of work because jewelry is obviously such a visual art,” Costolo says. “The way diamonds and gold play in light is a beautiful phenomenon in photography and translates so interestingly on social media. I try to make the company’s Instagram feel really exciting and modern. This is luxury, but that doesn’t mean it has to be stuffy.”
In the near term, Costolo says she sees sticking to the direct-to-consumer model rather than a brick-and-mortar one—although that is in her brand’s future. She’s also interested in focusing on sustainability and continuing to donate a portion of every sale to her favorite nonprofit, the Diamond Development Initiative.
“I love the ability to make everything to order in small batches because it prevents waste and excess materials,” Costolo says. “I think in the future it would be cool to have a private showroom with a secret location where clients could come submit custom orders and try on pieces.”
In the next five years, Costolo dreams of boosting her brand’s investment in technology and taking her visions even further.
“I see us as a pivotal company for sustainable luxury, selling on high-end e-commerce platforms and innovating the industry at every level,” Costolo says. “I want to have in-house lab-grown diamond manufacturing and revolutionize try-on technology for online jewelry shopping. I see myself and Costolo bringing new technology into the luxury jewelry manufacturing world whenever possible.”
Top: As an up-and-coming designer, Rose Costolo hopes to launch her new jewelry brand internationally, adding her take on gold, metal properties, and high tech (photos courtesy of Costolo).
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