Lady LUX

On a trip to India, Tiffany Taylor had a turning point. Seeing Indian women covered in exquisite saris and jewelry, even women lower on the economic scale, she began to feel differently about fashion.

“They always had their best foot forward,” she described. “They were always dressed in these beautiful colored saris and jewelry. And I remember thinking ‘Wow, no matter what your station is in life, you can always dress yourself to make yourself feel a little bit better and feel uplifted.’”

Taylor returned home filled with purpose. Ditching a job as a yoga instructor, she turned her time and talent to something artistic rather than physical: jewelry design.

She was her own first client, but soon her pieces attracted interest from friends and family, and eventually she got the courage to shop her line to local boutiques.

“I walked into a boutique one day, and I was terrified because I had my jewelry with me. It was one of those things that I knew was awkward, but I knew I had to do it,” she said. “And the boutique, which was quite a stylish boutique, actually agreed to carry my line, and I remember thinking ‘Wow, I think I really have an actual shot at making this work.’”

Returning to the store a few weeks later, she was excited to see one of her necklaces on the mannequin in the window. She began to wonder if she had the talent to make it in the competitive world of jewelry and started “getting more serious about designing.” Her second line, she believes, was far more impressive.

More boutiques and a website followed. In 2009, she officially launched Taylor Kenney Jewelry. Today her jewelry is sold as far away as Hong Kong and the U.K.

Taylor describes her designs as “girly.” She aims to create pieces that flow and catch the light, conveying a sense of femininity and grace—not something that is a passing trend.

“What I kept going for is something that can transcend seasons and fashion; something that won’t go out of style quickly,” she revealed. “It’s not too trendy.”

Her work combines unpolished gemstones with gold wire crocheting, a technique that Taylor adores for its antiquity.

“I really like the challenge of taking that older technique and trying to bring it up to date, modernizing it and putting (it) with interesting shaped stones and bringing that up to date and mixing the older techniques with the newer styles and seeing how it comes out,” the designer disclosed.

Like the Impressionists, she finds inspiration in the little things, particularly light. Her jewelry attempts to capture light: the way it hits a tree or the way it changes throughout the day.

“How the light hits a gem, hits a stone in a certain way, is so beautiful to me, very inspiring, and the way light hits gold, particularly, which is why I think I am so enamored of gold, because it is so bright and it’s like it is lit from within,” Taylor revealed.

Since she makes each of her pieces by hand, Taylor believes her jewelry has a story and a personality to it.

“The women that are going to be drawn to my jewelry want something to wear that is a little outside the box. It’s not a cookie cutter thing,” she said. “It’s just interesting to look at. You know that some thought and energy went in to making it.”

She enjoys the charm of raw gemstones, and gravitates toward rough stones that have character – garnet, blue agate, turquoise, aquamarine, moonstone. The unexpected contrast of gold bling with an imperfect, but “interesting” stone, she believes, catches the eye.

“I really enjoy the gems that are slightly flawed, slightly unpolished and unrefined, because I think that they have a lot of personality and they are interesting, like people,” the designer said.

A self-professed casual yet classic dresser, Taylor is most comfortable in neutral tones or basics like jeans and a white shirt.

“So when I put on jewelry, I want that jewelry to pop against that neutral backdrop … whether it’s chandelier earrings that stand out or a pendant necklace,” she explained. “Something that goes ‘Oh, that’s neat,’ or ‘I feel good in this because it is something interesting and unique.'”

Inspiration, though, comes most often in times of quiet or during routine tasks, such as paying the bills.

“I’ll get these images of pieces just coming into my head and I’ll just follow that in my mind,” Taylor noted, citing her strong imagination. “But it is very distracting, like trying to watch a TV show.”

Moved by the plight of the world’s hungry, she donates 10 percent of sales to the UN World Food Program, a decision she says that “just seemed the right thing to try to do.”

Designing, she reports, is an adventure: “When you start, you kind of don’t know what’s going to happen. So I like that.” And it’s an adventure she will stick with—more crochet techniques, expansion into rings, and new pieces featuring sparkly drusy stones are all in the pipeline. We can’t wait to see them.

Check out all her gorgeous pieces at www.taylorkenney.com.

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Fashion / Features