AU Showroom

As a young girl growing up in Kentucky, Shahla Karimi had big plans to be a cheerleader when she grew up. And in a way, the jewelry designer has fulfilled that wish. Karimi founded AU Showroom in September of 2015, as a designer-run accessory showroom, representing both herself and a cadre of talented women accessory designers in the diamond district in Manhattan.

Named after the periodic element for gold, the AU Showroom is a supportive network of creative, driven women entrepreneurs and designers with Karimi at helm, fostering a community of success and collaboration.

And with clients like Lena Dunham, Emma Watson, Gigi Hadid and Suki Waterhouse wearing the showroom’s designers pieces and publications like Elle, Vogue, Marie Claire and Interview magazines featuring the pieces inside their pages, it’s safe to say that Karimi’s natural cheerleading abilities has paid off for both her and the AU Showroom designers in spades.

Shahla Karimi

Before launching her namesake line in 2014, Karimi worked with an incredible roster of international designers and companies like Vogue, the CFDA, DVF, Marchesa and Alexander Wang. Now, Karimi works exclusively in jewelry design, using recycled metals and conflict-free stones to create her organic, modern pieces.

She’s best known for her Subway collection, a thoughtful and elegant wearable interpretation of the NYC Subway system. Using some of the most popular and easily recognizable routes as a basis for her designs, Karimi replicates the fluid lines of the map in her metalwork to create a series that is at once forward-thinking and nostalgic

Visit Shahla Karimi

BleeCker and Prince

She gets inspired to create listening to Rob Stewart, splits her time between Tel Aviv and New York City, sources all her pieces’ diamonds herself and can’t work without a ruler by her side. Bleeker and Prince designer Leehe Segal is a multi-faceted woman with a natural talent for blending seemingly disparate elements into a cohesive whole.

In fact, it’s this juxtaposition of edgy and classic, feminine and funky that inspired Bleeker and Prince into being. The two iconic city streets - which incidentally never intersect - have distinct personalities, with Bleeker a little grungy, full of indie record shops without a thought to what’s now. Meanwhile, situated just behind Soho’s most busy streets is Prince, the cool little sister who knows what’s chic before anyone else.

That duality informs every collection Segal creates. Her semi-annual collection consists of wearable, everyday pieces that are meant to be layered and loved. Each piece is casually luxe; dainty and sweet but with a geometric shape for a bit of edge.

Visit Bleecker and Prince

Ryan Porter

After graduating from Ohio State in 2009, Krysten Kauder followed her passions to NYC where she immediately fell in with the fashion crowd, interning and assisting at Vogue, DANNIJO, Chan Luu and Carolee. The experience and support she found in these women-run companies inspired her to start her own jewelry line, Ryan Porter, in 2013. As the designer says herself, her biggest inspiration is her “girl gang”.

The result is a playful, charming (literally!) line of youthful jewelry with its finger placed firmly on the pulse of the Zeitgeist. Kauder obviously has a whip smart sense of humor and sense of timing, her uber-popular bracelets customizable with emojis, cheeseburger charms and alphabet beads for bestie bracelets that are cute AF.

Visit Ryan Porter

Selin Kent

Originally hailing from Istanbul, Turkey, Selin Kent now calls New York home for both herself and her namesake jewelry design business. Kent calls upon her extensive travels to inform her collection of pieces made from 14 karat gold and precious stones. There’s an easy sophistication to her collection that imbues the woman wearing it with a sexy confidence. Her designs are architectural with clean, geometric lines that are both modern and timeless. The Selin Kent woman is all about glam statement pieces but in an unexpected, not obvious way.

Visit Selin Kent

Tara Elwin

Looking through Tara Elwin’s S/S 2016 Arc collection, it should come as no surprise that the designer counts Alexander Calder as one of her influences for her line, TARA 4779. Elwin incorporates fluid, organic shapes into her minimalist jewelry collection. Soft angles and spare, elegant lines abound with unexpected touches of color finishing off each piece.

Elwin’s fine art and graphic design background plays a pivotal role in her design process; mathematics, architecture and even typography come into play when she’s designing a new collection. And while each collection is its own thing, Elwin hopes there’s an interconnectedness between each one so that women can customize their collections to suit their personalities.

Visit Tara 4779

Gillian Steinhardt

Gilliam Steinhardt combined her varied and extensive educational and professional background in fashion design, art history, textiles, styling, costume design and metalsmithing to found her eponymous label. Relying heavily on the over-the-top glamour of the 1970s combined with the things she’s seen on her travels, Steinhardt has created a jewelry line full of statement pieces for the sophisticated woman. Never gaudy but always impactful, each of her sculptural designs is perfect to wear on its own to give life to an everyday look or layered up to elevate an evening look into something truly memorable.

Karimi’s creation is the ultimate #squadgoals for the working, intellectual woman who has a love for beautiful things. There’s nothing more inspiring or motivating than seeing a collective of talented, thoughtful women working together to empower one another to add beauty and richness to the world around them.

Visit Gillian Steinhardt