Sotheby’s Palm Beach x The Stax Celebrates Women Jewelry Designers

By Amy Elliott | March 31, 2022

Next week, a new selling exhibition arrives at Sotheby’s Palm Beach gallery, offering South Florida jewelry collectors a unique opportunity to shop a selection of jewels by some highly coveted designers (and longtime JCK editor favorites), including Alice Cicolini, Lydia Courteille, Daniela Villegas, Loren Nicole, Marlo Laz, Renna, Guita M, Nina Runsdorf, Almasika, and Prounis.

Encompassing more than 130 pieces representing the work of 24 female designers, the sale is being produced in collaboration with The Stax, a new venture billing itself as a full-service jewelry and style advisory. “We work like art advisers for jewelry, advising and steering our clients to both invest in heritage jewelers and contemporary talent to make future heirlooms that come from the heart,” says Victoria Lampley, who founded The Stax with Laurel Pantin, a former fashion and style editor (at InStyle, Coveteur, and other publications). “We also help with sourcing anything from a vintage signet ring to making a fully bespoke engagement ring, while happily advising on resets of existing family jewelry and/or styling their current jewelry collection.”

It’s the first time The Stax has partnered with Sotheby’s. Since launching the brand last year, Lampley says she and her team have also worked on organizing bespoke commissions from Taffin, Solange Azagury-Partridge, Elizabeth Gage, Renato Cipullo, and Belperron, while fostering new relationships with “a mixed bag of both new-ish and esteemed established jewelers such Jenna Katz, Matturi, Akaila Reid, Arielle Ratner, Sherman Field, Sophie Keegan, Courtney Leidy, and Rebecca Pinto, among others.”

Looking ahead, The Stax has shifted to a more hybrid advisory model. “We work with our private clients to advise on everything from sourcing extraordinary pieces to commissioning fully custom bespoke pieces with the right jeweler and also work alongside a selection of retained jewelry clients to advise them on everything from brand storytelling and collaborations to social strategy and business development. We also style campaigns and can help with trunk shows and fostering strategic relationships with showrooms and the press.”

The Sotheby’s exhibition is an in-person only affair, on view and shoppable at Sotheby’s Palm Beach gallery April 4–10.

As the sale is timed with Mother’s Day shopping in mind, a portion of the proceeds will benefit the charity Mother Lovers, which is helping to battle the maternal health care crisis in the United States, where, according to a press release accompanying the sale, women are twice as likely to die in childbirth today than they were 20 years ago. Furthermore, the United States has the only rising maternal mortality rate in the developed world.

The featured jewels have been curated to tell a story that pays homage to female talent. And for those who can’t attend the sale in person, but are longing for signs of warmer weather, the pieces highlighted below (and up top) perfectly capture the best of the Palm Beach area’s colors, scenery, and bon vivant lifestyle. Dive in!