Lorraine Schwartz: Distinctive Design Aesthetic
Celebrating 25 years of a singular career shaped by family legacy, fearless instinct, and an eye for the extraordinary.
By Karen Giberson
Lorraine Schwartz was on her way to meet a client when we spoke — a fitting circumstance for a designer whose work has always been deeply personal. Behind the extraordinary stones, red-carpet moments, and famous names is a woman who begins with the person who will wear the piece. She studies how someone moves, the tone of their skin, the shape of their hand and, most importantly, who they are. “Your client needs to be her authentic self,” Schwartz said. “That’s where the design comes in, and that’s where we succeed.”
That attentiveness has helped make Schwartz one of the most influential jewelry designers responsible for some of the most important jewelry moments of the 21st century. Her client list is a who’s who of fashion, music, and entertainment, yet the mythology surrounding the name can obscure the years of work that came before it. “It didn’t just happen,” she said. “Time. Work. It has to be perfect.”
Schwartz was born in New York into a close-knit Jewish family. When her grandparents were small children, they were forced out of Uzbekistan because of pogroms against the Jews by the Bolsheviks. Leaving their family fortune behind, they had to walk to Palestine/Eretz Israel. In the mid-1950s, her grandfather, Hanan Benjamini, came to the United States to open a diamond office. Her mother and family followed soon after. For Schwartz, that history is an inheritance of strength, adaptability, and gratitude.