Glittering Maximal Jewels
Bold and Beautiful Gems are Not-So-Little-Somethings From Margot McKinney, David Webb, and More
BY Christina Geyer //
David Webb Totem Collection, designed in the 1970s, has been reissued with green onyx, rubellite, blue, pink and orange sapphires, peridot, lapis, rhodonite, fire opal, brilliant-cut diamonds, aquamarine, and other luscious stones, in 18K gold and platinum, $96,000 – $145,000, at Neiman Marcus, Dallas; Saks Fifth Avenue, Houston; David Webb boutique in Beverly Hills, New York.
There are no shrinking carats here. Bold and legacy-defining, some of the most compelling jewels are a statement in confidence and originality. Here, we show four wizards whose fantastical jewels know no bounds — David Webb’s reimagined 1970s Totem collection; stunning Margot McKinney high jewelry with a philanthropic bent, wickedly eccentric pieces by Hutton Wilkinson for Tony Duquette, and Sevan Biçakçi’s Grand Bazaar-inspired gems.
David Webb Totem Collection, designed in the 1970s, has been reissued with green onyx, rubellite, blue, pink and orange sapphires, peridot, lapis, rhodonite, fire opal, brilliant-cut diamonds, aquamarine, and other luscious stones, in 18K gold and platinum, $96,000 – $145,000, at Neiman Marcus, Dallas; Saks Fifth Avenue, Houston; David Webb boutique in Beverly Hills, New York.
David Webb: The American Icon
A king of American high jewelry, the late great David Webb had a sparkly clientele that included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Barbra Streisand. Webb was synonymous with larger-than-life glamour, from 1950s Tinseltown to 1960s Palm Beach; it was during the 1970s with its boho-disco-meets-Upper East Side aesthetic that he debuted his Totem collection: colorful, joyful pendants of stacked gems in modular geometric shapes. The collection has now been reissued, updated but with the same penchant for maximalism — and, of course, created by hand in David Webb’s Madison Avenue workshop. One of the jewelry house’s latest Totem designs offers three shapely sections: the first with amethyst, gaspeite, and Carrera marble; the second with tiger’s eye, phosphosiderite and coral; and the final section capped off with peridot, amethyst and tiger’s eye. It’s a perfect not-so-little something.
Margot McKinney Bloem collier with eight significant tourmalines totaling more than 240 carats, along with 27 large Australian South Sea baroque pearls; white and brown diamonds; blue, pink and purple sapphires; pink tourmalines; amethysts; and rubellites, price upon request, at Neiman Marcus; Margot McKinney boutique, Beverly Hills.
Margot McKinney: The Classicist
In 2007, an elegant Australian woman armed with troves of significantly sized South Sea pearls, Australian opals, aquamarines, and other precious gems quietly began spending time in Dallas. We all know her now, of course, as Margot McKinney, whose high jewelry collection is the latest chapter in her family’s pedigreed, four-generation, 141-year-old business. Today, McKinney is highly regarded throughout the world for her brightly hued jewels that border on painterly, with a careful blending of color and manipulation of precious metals that create organic, fluid lines and shapes often seen in nature but rarely replicated in fine jewelry. McKinney’s latest work is a stunning ring blazing with a 41.71-carat fancy-yellow, cushion-cut diamond set among 4.47 carats of argyle pink diamonds — one of the rarest diamond types in the world, sourced from the now-shuttered Argyle mine in remote northwest Australia. This ring is particularly special, as it was made for the benefit of Fort Worth’s 71st annual Jewel Charity Ball, set for March 7, 2026, and will celebrate McKinney’s legacy of exquisite design while raising money for Cook Children’s. She named the ring Seraph, as in the angelic hierarchy, for the Ball’s Angel Donors. Also catching our eye is McKinney’s Masterpieces collection created for display at the prestigious TEFAF art fair. One piece had star quality all its own: the Marina collier, with a 241-carat seafoam aquamarine at its center and 25 unusually large and rare Australian South Sea baroque pearls. Dame Helen Mirren wore the stunner on the red carpet at Cannes this summer. “My collection is for people with the confidence of style,” Margot said during a recent catch-up at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. Confidence, indeed.
Hutton Wilkinson for Tony Duquette brooch in 18K gold with citrine, diamond, and black enamel, price upon request, at Neiman Marcus, Dallas; Saks Fifth Avenue, Houston; Cayen Collection, Carmel-by-the-Sea; Marissa Collections, Palm Beach.
Hutton Wilkinson for Tony Duquette: The Eccentric
“She’s a lady who doesn’t have to ask permission.” And with one description, Hutton Wilkinson — the dapper designer and steward behind all things Tony Duquette, from jewelry to interiors to private estate — perfectly defined modern feminism. “She’s a self-purchaser. She’s the girl who already has a great strand of pearls and the diamond — and now she wants to have some fun.” We might add that the wearer of Tony Duquette jewelry also has a sense of wit, cleverness, and originality. Wilkinson’s designs are often wickedly amusing and one-of-a-kind in a way that can’t help but spark awe and conversation. While many designers start with a sketch and find the stones to fit the design, Wilkinson takes the opposite approach. He is in search of the most “weird and wonderful” gems, he tells us, and he embraces the challenge of turning rare found stones into extraordinary jewelry. Case in point, Wilkinson is wild about an opal he recently found that was carved in the shape of a Buddha. He transformed the opalescent figure into a magnificent brooch. Eccentricity in the form of high design is what Tony Duquette stood for, and what Wilkinson has carried forth into modern society. The jewels are fantastical — fragments of coral mixed with black pearls and skulls for a necklace befitting Daphne Guinness — and regal, with recurring Edwardian references.
Sevan Biçakçi bracelet in gold and silver with diamond cuts and micro-mosaics of semiprecious stones and yellow diamonds; inspired by historic tank-pattern design, $47,500, at Magnolia City Jewelers; Korman Fine Jewelry, Austin; Sevan Biçakçi boutique, Miami.
Sevan Biçakçi: The Mystic
There’s something haunting and beautiful about Sevan Biçakçi, the collection of jewelry led by the Turkish designer and his creative director, Emre Dilaver. Based in Istanbul, they are known for elaborately carved and jeweled pieces inspired by the classic workshops and craftsmanship found in the Grand Bazaar, as well as the ancient cultures and histories of Anatolia, Byzantium, and the Ottoman Empire. Of late, the collection is taking notes from the natural world. “We’ve explored the butterfly’s story of transformation,” Dilaver says. “The metamorphosis of a so-called ‘ugly’ caterpillar into a mesmerizingly beautiful butterfly can certainly be inspiring for many of us — but to be honest, I think we’ve been unfair to caterpillars.” The result is an abstract collection of bracelets inspired by, yes, caterpillars, with diamonds and colorful stones that wrap up the wrist. Other pieces feature the designer’s signature rare-air inverse intaglio process, wherein illustrations and designs are reversely engraved into the underside of a gem — a painstaking effort that results in illuminated images of flowers, birds, seashells, even the Hagia Sophia. Dilaver says, “I’ve long been an advocate for pieces that, in a way, serve as symbols in similar fashion to those of gods and goddesses from ancient mythology — where simply gazing upon a symbol was enough to feel the presence of the actual god.”
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