An exuberant Mary Esses contacted me last night to dish on
her latest coup: First Lady Michelle Obama wore a pair of 18k yellow gold
earrings from Esses’ Textiles collection to the NAACP 101st convention in
Kansas City, Missouri, on Monday night July 12.
The earrings feature ample cuts of green quartz and beryl,
with silky looking gold knots stationed near the lobe. The earrings are
one-of-a-kind, and the price … well, Mrs. Obama would prefer that information not be disclosed.
This is not the first time Esses has spotted the First Lady
wearing her jewels. In Fall 2009, Obama wore earrings from Esses’ Oceana
collection on two different occasions. The first was a White House dinner
with the wife of the Prime Minister of India, and Obama wore oval-shape
hoop earrings with citrines and diamonds. The next occasion was a ceremony
posthumously honoring Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti with a Medal of
Honor, to which Obama wore earrings with green tourmaline and square-shaped
brown and colorless diamonds.
Esses, a native Brazilian, has a background in painting and
ceramics, and favors colored stones for use in her old-world romantic styles.
Suggested retail prices for her work starts at $600, and consumers can find her
jewelry in just four stores nationwide (retailers, there could be a great opportunity here for you). As a first-time exhibitor to the
Couture show this year—she’s been wholesaling in the U.S. for just three
years—Esses had a pretty good show. “I opened clients and had an amazing
response to my work from storeowners who rarely stop for first-timers,” she
told JCK in a recent interview.
Esses is in New York. Check out her Web site at www.maryesses.com.
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