Women's
Margot McKinney: Australian For Gems
McKinney holds one of her precious designs
Five years ago jewelry designer Margot McKinney tagged along on her husband’s business trip. They attended a conference in Dallas and on the last day they agreed to meet Downtown, at Neiman Marcus. What happened next would turn the 15-hour flight from Brisbane, Australia to Dallas into a regular commute.
The fourth-generation Australian jeweler had grown up on the selling side of the industry, working at McKinney Jewelers (later to become Hardy Jewelers), the business her great-great-grandfather started in 1884.
“When I was managing director of that business I was too busy to be totally involved in the designing side of the jewelry, but when we sold a big part of the business it suddenly gave me more time to indulge this passion of mine,” she says. Working with some of the world’s rarest gems and largest pearls, many of which are native to the mineral-rich nation McKinney calls home, she crafted a small collection that was all her own – dramatic pieces constructed of giant gemstones and pearls from Australia’s dinner plate-sized oysters.
McKinney stands in the precious jewelry area of Neiman Marcus' Downtown Dallas store.
McKinney wears her green tourmaline and diamond earrings.
That day years ago when McKinney walked into Neiman Marcus, she found her husband talking up her collection to Patti Mitchell, the manager of the precious jewelry department.
“I could see her going, ‘oh hum, not another jewelry designer.’”
That is, until Mitchell saw it for herself. On the spot, she made McKinney an appointment with a buyer.
The opportunity was monumental for McKinney, who had been dreaming about the glamour of Neiman Marcus since she read Stanley Marcus’ Minding the Store when she was 19.
Laguna agate and diamond earrings
“So I went back to the hotel, got dressed up, got my bag of jewelry and came back,” McKinney says. “The precious jewelry buyer Lisa Haddow looked at it and after a while she said, ‘I think that this will be perfect for 14 of our 40 stores.’ I nearly fell off the chair!”
Today McKinney’s eponymous collection is exclusively sold at Neiman Marcus. The majority of her masterpieces are at the flagship store, right where her husband stood years before.
Australian baroque South Sea Pearls surrounded by pink sapphires and diamonds on an 18K pink gold chain with rare 208ct aquamarine
Margot McKinney will make a personal appearance at Neiman Marcus Dallas-Downtown, December 10-13.
