Behind the Award-Winning "Rockstars" Earrings: A Conversation with Nadri's Design Director and VP of Design

In November 2023, Nadri was declared one of the winners of the Accessories Council Design Excellence Award in the category of Fashion Jewelry for their “Rockstars” Blue CZ Chandelier Earrings. Intrigued by their product and company, a group of students and I decided to learn more and met with Michelle Tamburro, the Design Director, and Renee Stonebraker, the Vice President of Design at Nadri.

Source: Nadri

During our conversation, we asked Michelle how she became an accessory designer, and she shared her journey with us. Michelle attended FIT at 28 years old after working as a fashion model for 13 years. She met a jewelry designer on the street and decided to pursue a career in jewelry design.

Her first job after graduating was at Liz Claiborne, where she was eventually asked to start Lucky Jewelry. She worked there for seven years, then moved on to work at Fossil and Henri Bendel before landing at Nadri, where she has been for almost four years.

Renee also shared her story, which involved answering an ad and ending up at Tiffany and Company, where she worked her way up to become the Director of Retail Design for fashion jewelry, baby watches, tabletops, and more. She eventually met Michelle through a mutual boss and has been at Nadri for almost six years.

Both Michelle and Renee emphasized the importance of taking every opportunity and forming relationships with people in the industry to navigate through the small and insular world of jewelry.

Michelle shared that the award-winning collection was inspired by the nuances of ombre colors, which they had not explored in the past. They took a chance and played with the ombre fashion filter on this piece, which became one of their best sellers.

Michelle shared that they use a CAD process to 3-dimensionally look over each piece before they have the factory make them. They are pretty stringent on making little tweaks, and they might go back and forth six or seven times on the CAD in some cases, but once they get to the sampling process, it's already been an evolution.

Regarding sustainability, Nadri is investigating ways to help better impact the environment. They are looking into saving materials, making products that will last a long time, changing their packaging and packing processes, and cutting down on plastic. They have started changing their Nadri cards and all of the cards across the company to 100% recycled paper, and they are looking into changing their bubble wrap.

Michelle shared that she looks for lots of inspiration in and outside of the business, and for this particular design, she had been sketching on a few different styles at one point. The design team takes a field trip day or two every quarter to observe what people are wearing, and what is happening, to combine that with trends and materials. Renee highlighted the importance of getting out on the street and observing, which is refreshing and sparks new ideas.

During the conversation, Ariya Suon asked if they had any other insights to share about designing. Michelle advised that sometimes ideas need time to stew, she said “Sometimes I’ll have an idea that doesn’t work right now, but that doesn't mean that it won’t work later. We started a folder at one point it was like the designer's choice, things didn't go through, and we still kind of feel like Ah no I really like that piece and kind of try to keep it in a folder, so when I'm starting a new collection, you know I might be like, Oh I remember that piece its perfect for now, sometimes you’re just in the wrong season, you keep everything.” 

Michelle emphasized the importance of looking at the past, observing details, and going to flea markets and museums to understand how things go together. Renee added, “The ability to think of an object in 3D and understand it in 3D is important.”

When asked about what the two loved about working at Nadri, Michelle shared that the company's attention to quality, detail, and sustainability makes her proud to work there. She added that the owner of the company appreciates the details and quality of the pieces, and the collaboration within the company is fantastic.

Renee agreed with Michelle, adding that teamwork and communication within the company are “the key to getting the results that you want.” She added that it's still exciting to see people using and living with the pieces they worked on, seeing the jewelry on the red carpet or at a wedding.