In luxury jewellery, the object is only part of the story. A custom piece also carries the taste of the person who wears it, the relationships that brought it into the room, and the hours spent earning trust before a client ever makes an order. In a February 2024 conversation with LAPSOFLUX, New York designer Eric Mavani spoke about those less visible parts of the business: persistence, access, design decisions and the patience required to build a name.
Mavani described his work as focused on high-end jewellery and clients whose lives move through entertainment and culture. His advice to emerging designers is unusually direct. Celebrity visibility can help a label travel, but it is not a shortcut around the unglamorous work of meeting people, following through and accepting rejection. The interview also offers a snapshot of the ideas he was exploring at the time, including Asscher and marquise cuts and a planned watch launch.
From the Diamond District to a name of his own
Mavani’s path into the trade began well before the profile of a celebrity jeweller. In Mavani & Co’s own biography, he describes starting in the jewellery business at 16, handing out flyers for a store in New York’s Diamond District. He later moved into sales, learning about diamonds and luxury timepieces through the work itself. At 20, he began freelancing and building a career independently.
That account matters because it places the brand’s image beside the routine that preceded it. A young designer distributing flyers is not yet operating at the scale suggested by a celebrity clientele. He is learning how a market works: who handles merchandise, how a seller earns credibility, and what it takes to stay in the conversation after the first introduction. Mavani’s biography says he photographed pieces and posted them to Instagram while trying to build relationships with vendors. That was a practical use of a platform that was becoming a visual storefront for independent businesses.
The early work also connects to the way Mavani describes the profession in the interview. Asked to introduce himself, he calls himself a high-end jewellery designer who serves networks and clients around the world. The sentence is brief, but it points to a business that combines product with access. A piece has to appeal on its own; the designer also has to understand the circles in which it will be seen, discussed and commissioned.
There is a distinction between being visible and being trusted. Visibility can bring a first look, but repeat business depends on execution: understanding what a client wants, managing expectations, and delivering a piece that feels personal rather than generic. Mavani’s interview does not present a formal blueprint for that work. Instead, his account of the early years suggests that reputation grows from repeated contact with the people who make the trade possible.
Instagram, introductions and the work behind celebrity visibility
Mavani recalls entering the industry while Instagram was just beginning to shape how designers presented their work. “I kinda grew with Instagram,” he said. The platform gave a small business a place to show pieces and develop an audience, but his advice makes clear that an online profile was only one part of the process. If the goal is to work with well-known clients, he says, meeting them is difficult; the right introductions and careful attention to the people who make those introductions matter.
His point is less about a glamorous encounter than about relationship maintenance. A recommendation may open a door, but the designer has to honour the connection. That means staying professional after the first meeting and understanding that a network is made up of people whose time, trust and judgement matter. In Mavani’s telling, progress is step by step, with patience required at every stage.
He is candid, too, about promotional exchanges. Emerging designers may offer a piece or another incentive in the hope that a public figure will wear it or share it. That approach is a business decision, not a guarantee of coverage or sales. A post may create attention, while the designer still has to convert that attention into a relationship and a product experience worth returning to. The distinction is useful for anyone watching celebrity marketing from the outside: the visible image is the endpoint of a longer chain of work.
For independent labels, social media can narrow the distance between a product and its audience, but it also makes consistency part of the job. A feed becomes an archive of taste and a signal of what a brand wants to be known for. Mavani’s own account links that public presentation to the harder work of building vendor trust and cultivating clients over time.
Shape, permanence and the jewellery point of view
In the 2024 interview, Mavani described an interest in Asscher and marquise cuts. Those shapes have distinct proportions and histories within jewellery design, and his mention of them offers a glimpse of the decisions behind a piece: not only the value of a stone, but the outline it creates and the way that outline changes the character of a setting. The conversation did not specify a collection or particular designs, so the comment is best read as a note on the direction he was considering then.
He also said that the brand would soon launch its own watch. Because that statement belongs to a 2024 interview, it records an intention at that moment; it should not be taken as confirmation of a current release. What it does show is how Mavani was thinking beyond a single category. Jewellery and watches both ask a designer to balance personal expression with objects made to be worn repeatedly and kept over time.
“Jewellery is timeless. Diamonds are forever,” he said. The line is familiar, but in the interview it sits beside a more contemporary interest in cut and experimentation. The tension between permanence and change is part of the appeal: a material can endure while the design language around it continues to move. For a designer working in a culture where pieces are often photographed as much as they are worn, shape becomes both a craft choice and a form of identity.
That balance between experimentation and permanence also connects to the way Mavani talks about business. He is interested in new forms and categories, but describes a career built through consistency: keep meeting people, keep learning and respect the long process behind each opportunity. Newness can attract attention; reliability gives a client a reason to return.
A business built on patience and follow-through
When asked what principles matter most to entrepreneurs, Mavani returns to temperament. “You have to be a people person,” he says, then talks about learning to work with clients and staying patient when someone says no. His answer treats rejection as part of the profession rather than proof that the idea has failed. The work is to listen, learn what did not connect and return with more resolve.
That advice echoes the interview’s account of building a client network. Jewellery is a product business, but it is also a service relationship: a designer must understand the person who will wear a piece, communicate clearly and remain dependable across decisions. Mavani’s emphasis on people is therefore practical. A striking design can attract attention; trust helps sustain the business behind it.
His closing message to aspiring entrepreneurs is emphatic: “Don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t do it. Don’t take no for an answer.” The energy is unmistakably his, but the interview’s fuller lesson is not simply to push harder. It is to keep working through obstacles while taking care of the relationships that make progress possible.
Mavani’s story, as told in the interview and in the brand’s own account of its beginnings, moves between two worlds: the highly visible image of a celebrity jeweller and the gradual work of learning a trade. The pieces may be designed to catch the eye. The career behind them has depended on patience, initiative and the willingness to keep showing up.