Athena Calderone Teams Up With John Hardy for First Jewelry Collection

A multihyphenate talent, Athena Calderone’s work reaches across creative disciplines. Interior design and entertaining sit at her core — with her lifestyle site EyeSwoon showcasing how her followers can enrich their own lives. But her unique viewpoint on modern aesthetics also extends to multiple books, a podcast — and now her first jewelry collection, a collaboration with John Hardy creative chairman Reed Krakoff.

“Reed is this somebody that I admire and look up to so much for his love of home, sense of style, business sense and creative sense,” Calderone told WWD, noting that his creative résumé spoke to her. “He’s built this incredible career,” she said, “and the first time we had a more intimate conversation it was this beautiful mind meld.”

The duo first met when Krakoff, then artistic director of Tiffany & Co., joined Calderone in 2020 on her podcast “More Than One Thing,” which explores the nonlinear paths of creative talents.  

“I had known Athena just through seeing her around and all the great work she’s done,” Krakoff said, “but I got to know her well on her podcast. We just connected and had a lot in common around design, things we loved and inspiration. We’re both into sort of everyday creativity and how it integrates into your life.”

The conversation lasted over two hours, with Calderone touching on many different parts of the creative landscape. “I love that feeling when you hold somebody in such high regard and then you connect on such a deep level,” she said of how the two clicked from their first conversation.

The friendship blossomed from there and when Krakoff was considering a new chapter for John Hardy, musing on how it could reach an aspirational customer “who’s super interested in style and fashion and travel and all those things, Athena was the first person I could think of,” he said.

Taking their creative conversation to a new level led to the 27-piece Athena Calderone x John Hardy jewelry collection. Predominantly designed in silver with moments of gold, her aim was to create an offering she deemed “intentionally imperfect.” It features 14-karat gold, diamonds, red jasper, and rock crystal with pieces starting at $995 for a silver with pavé diamond ring and topping out at $6,200 for the 14-karat gold lariat necklace with diamonds.

Calderone began, as she does with all her projects, with a deep dive into history, crossing eras and design references. “I was pulling materiality, just overall vibe and looking at auction sites, at jewelry, but also home and different materials,” she said of her early research.

She referenced women known for their iconic style, too, citing Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Tina Chow and Eileen Gray as jewelry muses.

“It was very collaborative, very tactile,” she said, offering a wide range of creative ideas to which Krakoff could respond and narrow down, all to “home in on what are common threads and common themes,” she said.

The duo said they took the time needed to flesh the project out with prototyping, sketching and firmly thinking it through. “I think that was one of the great things about working with Athena, she was so committed to the project,” he said. “She was enthusiastic about working continuously on it for over a year, which is really not typical for these types of collaborations.”

The result, Krakoff said, is the intersection between Calderone’s world and the John Hardy heritage, landing on a collection that his customer would find unexpected. “I think we actually came at it sort of an opposite side.  And then during the process, we changed places a few times. It’s more about design on my side, more about intent and aesthetic on her side. And then I would be more about aesthetic, and she would be more about design. It was super fluid, very easy,” he said.

Calderone added that the personal and intimate nature of “adorning” the body with jewelry as a key touch point for her in working in the category. “I wanted to make sure that we were designing pieces that felt really elegant and subtly bold at the same time,” she said.

Both creatives have multiple collaborations under their belt, but their joint collection pushed them each to a new place.

“We got to use the workshop and the craftspeople in a new way,” Krakoff explained, adding that his Bali-based craftspeople welcome a challenge. “They love trying something different, something new or a combination of different elements.”

Case in point: working with rock crystal, a material they hadn’t used previously and found in several pieces in the collection, as well as developing a new technique for running strips of diamonds through the material.  “That was something Athena loved and really wanted to incorporate. It took a long time to get them to understand, but they did an amazing job,” he said.

Since the brand’s founding the craftspeople in Bali have helped tell the John Hardy story for 50 years.

“It’s an incredibly talented and skilled group of a few 100 artisans that make every single piece and carve every single prototype in wax, which is a very old way of doing things,” Krakoff noted. “They actually do it the way high jewelry is done and the way jewelry was always done previous to technology taking that part over. They’re an amazing combination of historical technique, craft and creativity.”

The collection debuts Tuesday with a campaign featuring Calderone, who already teased it a bit by wearing pieces at events during Milan Design Week last week. The collection rollout comes with a series of behind-the-scenes content highlighting the duo’s work that will live on various channels.

“When you look at the imagery, and you look at the product, the design, and you look at Athena’s body of work, you really understand the connection between them. So, I think people that love her style and love what she does will really appreciate this,” Krakoff said of the collection.  “I also think people just have great style and are looking for something new and fresh in the way John Hardy will find these things, really enticing.”

The two creatives will fete the collection Tuesday night with a dinner at luxury membership club The Twenty Two featuring a mix of tastemakers, and while it’s not confirmed, the collaboration could be the start of a larger conversation.

“I had the most incredible experience working with Reed and the entire team. I love to build long-term relationships. I mean, I’ve been married 25 years, my first employee is still with me. I love deep rooted relationships,” Calderone said.