There are people who live in towers of beige, for whom a sanctuary equals an envelope of Scandi-inspired whiteness, devoid of color. One can easily imagine the appeal of such calm.
Queensland-based jeweler Margot McKinney is not one of those people. She confirms this herself, but it would not have been hard to guess: her flagship store in Brisbane beckons customers with its signature emerald green door – a motif that’s repeated in her eponymous boutique at the Beverly Hills’ Peninsula Hotel - where behind lies a riotous Wizard of Oz-like world. Her jewelry, big and bold – not so much statement pieces as entire paragraphs - takes centre stage. It is as if technicolor has first been invented, as show-stopping cocktail rings (for example: a 21.57 carat opal cocktail ring surrounded by diamonds and stones including two shades of sapphires, peridot, tourmaline and garnet) heavy necklaces and sumptuous bracelets dance from their pedestals. “Never leave home without earrings and lipstick!” declared the writing on one of her displays; if anyone follows the advice of Coco Chanel who implored women to take off something before they were ready to face the world, it surely isn’t McKinney’s disciples.
When we first speak, she is in Los Angeles, natch. There is no small talk; everything she says is pronounced firmly, and with the assurance of someone who has lived and seen more than a little, which she has, at 65. Hers is a fascinating back story, and she might have simply grown up as someone who wore jewels, not made them. (She does both.) But her roots lie in the ordinary rural town of Toowoomba in 1884, when her ancestor John McKinney – an immigrant from Northern Ireland – established a McKinney’s store in town. Many decades later, Margot’s own childhood was infused with memories of playing in the department store and being mesmerized by the woman hired to write on the for-sale tickets of items with her beautiful handwriting. Color was everywhere, albeit in a sophisticated fashion: McKinney remembers the stunning pink and gold marble Florence Broadhurst wallpaper in the halls of her family home, while the bedroom she grew up in was a sophisticated chocolate brown in full gloss. On those walls, a painting of hot pink, aquas and yellows, by the aforementioned ticket-writer. “I think that’s something that runs in our family,” she muses. “We have a good sense of color.” And a strong aesthetic, it would seem, based on McKinney’s own look. Her chic ensembles often mix the sedate and refined with the eye-catching; she will pair an elegant black dress with wild Gucci snake-motif boots or green leopard-spot pantyhose, a sartorial exclamation point to the dazzling jewels that she wears.
The emerald door that has become so intrinsic to her stores isn’t as much about marketing as something far deeper: it serves to ground her. “I think when you’re in nature, there’s so much green around us, and then it’s juxtaposed with the blue of the sky and the blue of the ocean. These colors of nature are all around us and they resonate with me when I’m designing. I think that’s why I like designing with Australian boulder opals – because they have these beautiful electric green and blue colors, and they’re really joyful. To think that they come out of the ground in that color is really quite extraordinary.”
Her Brisbane residence is a melange of color, each room a rainbow universe unto itself. The living room is punctuated by brilliant yellow velvet sofas and pink armchairs (velvet again), the dining room boasts ombre wallpaper highlighting pink again, while the kitchen features blues and greens, as well as a wallpaper landscape in those same shades. Is it surprising, therefore, that she is so drawn to pearls, given their absence of color? “I think it’s the luster I really love and appreciate, and the fact that they’re the only gems that come from a living organism.” But there is something more emotional behind the pull as well: “My mother wore pearls almost every day, [as did] my grandmother.”
It soon becomes clear that for McKinney, jewelry is not about the aesthetic assessment alone; the tug of what it represents is just as vital, and perhaps this is what makes her so successful: her work is also prominently featured at selected Neiman Marcus stores across the US and the iconic Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York, where an additional Fifth Avenue flagship store will open later this year. “I think as we get older, jewelry is a signifier of milestones in life, whether somebody acquires it for themselves or has been given it as a gift, and a symbol of love. Jewelry holds memories, of particular times in one’s life, or important people in one’s life. If you’re fortunate enough to have a piece of jewelry that belonged to your mother, grandmother or aunt, then that will carry a memory and when you put that piece of jewelry on, it will keep that person close….In our business, we become the holders of a lot of proprietary information and people share the reasons why they might be acquiring a piece of jewelry. I know somebody who sadly lost a very important member of her family, and she wanted to signify that with a beautiful piece of jewelry that she could keep close to her. It can be a solemn occasion or a joyful one, but we are the keeper of many family stories, which is an honored role for us.”
