How I Got Here: Michelle Gay Translates Auto Expertise Into Jewelry

By Karen Dybis | September 24, 2025

Michelle Gay’s career began with one of the most exciting journeys a young college graduate might experience: She helped shape a new company, from its debut to its apex as a respected automaker, and traveled worldwide to market its incredibly complex vehicles.

Gay served as the brand and business manager and later as the sales and marketing director for the British company David Brown Automotive from its founding in 2013 through November 2024. In those roles, she worked with royalty, celebrities, and car obsessives who wanted one of the ultraluxury autos.

It was a wild ride, Gay says, jet-setting from yachts to auto shows to supplier plants across the globe. But her dream job morphed into a nightmare when financial problems put David Brown Automotive into administration and then new ownership.

Ever resourceful, Gay had another plan ready. In 2021, she had registered a company and trademark. Gay wanted to build a brand on her longtime love of jewelry while she continued her day job.

Gold Trip set — *Gold Trip uses hand-strung, faceted glass beads in its Summer Rose Glass bracelet ($58) and necklace ($80).*

But with her David Brown job in jeopardy, Gay saw she needed to make a change. So she quit and decided to go full-throttle into her jewelry brand, Gold Trip. The new goal? Recapture the joy in her career.

“It was a form of escapism—something creative, something challenging, and something that helped me reconnect with the world I’d work and lived in before the world of automotive,” Gay says.

Gold Trip has evolved into a business beyond her expectations. Its jewelry is stocked at more than 60 stores, including ones Gay herself shopped at and long admired. She has exhibited at the Jewellery Show in London, and has an office with full-time employees.

Now based in London, Gay grew up in England’s Midlands area. Her parents had a working farm, and they rented their outbuildings to guys who stored and worked on their cars there. She describes her childhood activities as both practical (learning how to care for the land) and beautiful (making handmade jewelry from art kits for her mom to wear).

GOLD TRIP Enamel Ear Cuff — *The hand-painted pink enamel ear cuff ($50) gets its sparkle from a single cubic zirconia stone.*

She graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2011 with a bachelor’s in modern languages. During college, she attended the Beijing Language & Cultural University as an exchange student, becoming fluent in Chinese.

Her first post-college job was with IBM in Munich. Working in Germany, a major car-producing country, provided an introduction to the automotive world. In 2012, Gay took a job as the communications coordinator in 2012 for Copenhagen design agency Designit and was thrown into a variety of projects during her six-month tenure.

Feeling homesick, Gay returned to the U.K. While working as the brand and communications manager for Eterniti Motors in London, she attended a luncheon where she was seated near David Brown, who was just developing his luxury cars.

Gay agreed to take the ride with Brown’s newly formed venture, and soon found herself learning every aspect of the auto business so she could properly communicate why these expensive vehicles were worth every penny.

“It was a small company then so I was wearing 1,000 hats,” Gay says. “I was working 80 hours a week, traveling all over.”

Gold Trip birthstone earrings — *Gold Trip recently started making birthstone jewelry, like these December charms ($33 each) with blue topaz–colored CZ, shown on huggie hoop earrings ($47 per pair).*

Her idea for a jewelry brand came out of her business travels: She needed easy-to-wear, demi-fine jewelry that looked expensive to her high-end automotive clients. This jewelry had to be lightweight, beautiful, and affordable enough to replace if she lost an earring or a pendant while on the road.

Gay’s language skills, particularly Mandarin, have helped her develop Gold Trip into an international brand, as she can deal with small, family-owned workshops in the Far East as well as U.K.-based suppliers. And she has put her design background from David Brown to use creating for Gold Trip.

She describes the jewelry as timeless with a contemporary twist. All Gold Trip’s pieces are crafted from hallmarked 925 sterling silver and plated in either 18k gold or rhodium, with many featuring freshwater pearls, semiprecious gemstones, enamel, or cubic zirconia.

“It’s grown so quickly, and I’m thankful that I have so many transferrable skills,” Gay says. “You have to make so many micro decisions, but I’m good at the manufacturing process and I’m a good negotiator. It’s been an amazing learning experience.”

Top: Michelle Gay jumped off the auto industry path to start her own jewelry brand, Gold Trip. (Photos courtesy of Gold Trip)