How I Got Here: Isabel Calvert Built Sette On Craft, Comfort, and Character

By Karen Dybis | October 20, 2026

Isabel (Rooney) Calvert’s first jewelry job was at Claire’s: piercing ears, working the floor, and getting hints of what her career would look like as she worked her way up from the mall to Signet Jewelers to her own brand.

“Retail at that level is brutal in a way that teaches you fast, and it set me up for everything that came later in buying and product,” says Calvert, the founder of Sette Jewelry. “Years later when I started at Signet, they placed me with Piercing Pagoda.… It is where the industry put me again the moment my career began.”

Calvert graduated from Texas A&M in 2014, taking her international business with German minor degree to Signet, where she entered its merchandising training program—a move she says was brilliant, considering she initially thought her first post-college job would be at a brewery.

“If I can ever give one piece of advice to someone who loves product and wants to build a career in it, join a merchandising or buying training program at one of the large organizations,” Calvert says. “You get insights into how the whole industry actually works, not just your corner of it, and it set me up for everything after.”

Sette radiant lab grown ring — *Muse Emerald ring (starting at $3,400) with emerald-cut lab-grown diamond in 18k yellow gold*

From there, Calvert went into merchandise planning at Piercing Pagoda and worked her way up to buyer. She was at that brand for about six years, through the shift to Banter; then she moved over at age 28 to be the senior diamond fashion buyer at Kay, which is one of the top two buying areas in the company.

“A lot of that is because I advocated for myself constantly. I was probably a little annoying to my managers about it. It came from my mentor, Stephanie Lawler, who told me, ‘If you don’t advocate for yourself, who will,’” Calvert says.

The biggest lesson she took from those years is understanding what the customer actually wants. That is art and science together, she says.

“You are looking at hard numbers and you are looking at customer feedback. And then you are also listening to the anecdotal side, what the store teams are telling you, what the boots on the ground are seeing. Those are all real data points and the ones people dismiss are usually the ones that matter most,” Calvert says.

Sette lueur huggies with yellow lab grown diamonds — *Lueur Marquise Huggies ($4,000) with yellow lab-grown diamonds in 14k yellow gold*

She also learned how to build product at scale. She often traveled, seeing what production actually looks like, learning which regions specialize in which techniques, and understanding where to go for the best version of a thing.

“What is more unusual is that I got to meet the owners of these manufacturers, sit in their workshops, and build real relationships with them. That is a huge part of it. The jewelry industry is small, and your relationships in this world matter more than almost anything else,” Calvert says.

She founded Sette in January 2025, using the concept of setting diamonds as part of its name. Her jewelry philosophy centers on three words: craft, comfort, and character. Craft to her is defined as her jewelry and the materials she chooses cost what they cost—she will not cut corners.

“I will not sacrifice workmanship for a better price either. I get told all the time that a piece would be cheaper if we did it another way, and my answer is always the same. I do not care. Do it anyway. It is okay that it costs more. My woman will pay for something that is actually built well, and she can tell the difference. There is no version of this where she gets a quietly worse piece so I can protect a number,” Calvert says.

Sette coquette pinky ring with 2 ct lab grown diamond — *Coquette Pinky Ring 2.0 ($4,000) with 2 ct. lab-grown diamond in 14k yellow and white gold*

Comfort is about daily wear and tear. Calvert is hard on jewelry, and she knows her customers will be as well. And character is not only about the design but also the woman who wears Sette.

“Jewelry is a record of who you were when you bought it. The industry loves to organize jewelry around occasions—the engagement, the anniversary, the gift—and I understand why, because occasions are easy to market to. But that is not how women actually experience their jewelry,” she says.

“I ask women at trunk shows all the time why they bought a particular piece, and the answer is almost always the same: ‘Because I loved it. Because it fit who I was right then.’ It is very rarely the diamond heart pendant her husband gave her that she truly loves and wants to talk about. It is the one she chose. So that is who I design for, and everything else follows from it.”

Top: Isabel (Rooney) Calvert of Sette (Photos courtesy of Sette)