How Sarah Rabie Turned a Childhood Spent in Her Father’s Antiques Warehouse Into a Jewelry Brand

By Victoria Gomelsky | August 19, 2026

Sarah Rabie founded her eponymous colored stone jewelry brand in 2022, but don’t mistake her for an industry newcomer.

In a wide-ranging conversation with JCK, the Los Angeles–born designer, who splits her time between L.A. and New York City, spoke on a slew of esoteric topics—the pros and cons of cedarwood oil and polymer to mask emerald inclusions, gemstone sourcing in Thailand, an upcoming mine visit to the Congo, and the nuances of a bezel setting—with the fluency of someone who’s spent decades studying the business.

Sarah Rabie Tourmaline Ring — *Ring in 18k gold with 7.03 ct. pink tourmaline, $9,500*

That’s because she has. Sort of. Rabie learned the tricks of the trade from her father, a Syrian immigrant to the United States who began importing and exporting everything from exotic foods to rough stones in the 1970s before turning his attention to antiques. She grew up surrounded by furniture, decorative objects, and jewels spanning the 16th to 19th centuries. The informal training she received in classic proportions lends her gem-centric 18k gold collection, which includes both vintage and contemporary pieces that retail between $3,000 and $20,000, a revivalist-with-an-edge sensibility.

“There’s always a little bit of a twist on how I’m either styling something or the color that I choose to use or this tension between masculine and feminine,” Rabie says. “If I had to put one word on my style, it would be neoclassical. But the stones themselves and the attitude behind them is a little irreverent.”

Sarah Rabie emerald pendant torque — *Pendant in 18k gold with 10.1 ct. Zambian emerald on Omega chain, $19,500*

Rabie is a self-described geology nerd (“I have a collection of stones that I started when I was 7—fossils and everything,” she shares). But at school, she was drawn to architecture. “I was obsessed with the Grand Tour period of Italian architecture, and I would design columns and redo parts of them.”

After earning master’s degrees in business administration and real estate development, Rabie became a real estate developer. During the pandemic, however, she drew on years spent poring over auction-house catalogs for her father’s antiques business to create a side hustle dealing in estate jewels.

“Then, all of a sudden, this large deal comes out of New Orleans with 10,000 pieces of jewelry,” Rabie says. “My dad calls me and says, ‘Do you want to fly out?’ And it takes 40 days to clean up this estate with 11 people. I didn’t know what was gold and what was plated but it gave me an entry point into estate jewelry. I learned about a lot of different periods and it gave me a cushion to go experiment. The woman who owned it collected jewelry for 50 years at every level, from boxes of jewelry from HSN to a 20-carat pear-shape diamond.”

Sarah Rabie emerald bangle — *Bangle in 18k gold with carved emerald beads, $12,500*

Rabie began consigning the treasure trove to auction houses and dealers, doing trunk shows, and building a network. “Then I realized every city has its own taste,” she explains. “Something might sell really well in Austin, but it doesn’t sell well in L.A., or something sells well in New York, but it doesn’t sell well in Austin. So I started curating my own sales. I grew up really focused on buying. And sourcing is my strength.”

Emeralds are Rabie’s specialty. “My dad collected a lot of Colombian emeralds when I was younger and I saw this Bulgari ring when I was maybe 7 or 8 that he still keeps—it’s old-mine product, no oil—and I fell in love with it,” says Rabie.

The Sarah Rabie collection features Colombian, Zambian, Brazilian, and even a few hard-to-source Russian emeralds, as well as antique diamonds, opals, and tourmalines galore. In general, she prefers to make capsule collections of 15 to 20 pieces in a single color palette featuring pendants, rings, and earrings with similar motifs. (At the moment, Rabie is working on a blue palette starring Montana sapphires, due out this fall.)

Sarah Rabie Montana Sapphire Necklace — *Necklace in 18k gold with 25 cts. t.w. natural diamonds and 7 cts. t.w. Montana sapphires (including 2.5 ct. center), $75,000*

“I’m not afraid of having inventory on hand to show samples,” she notes. “What I’ve learned is you don’t really know exactly what your customers will like. Sometimes, little nuances really resonate with someone. I think you need to really feel jewelry to like and understand it, especially with colored stones. You need to put it on your hand, see how it looks, play with it.”

Sarah Rabie opal ring — *Byzantine ring in 18k gold with 9.1 ct. Ethiopian opal and 0.69 ct. t.w. diamonds, $3,200*

After all, Rabie speaks from experience. “My father’s warehouse is about 100,000 square feet and it’s just jam-packed,” she says. “It’s the craziest place for inspiration. When I look at faceting and proportions, my ideas come from all the years that I didn’t know I was being influenced.”

Sarah Rabie Teal Tourmaline pendant — *Pendant in 18k gold with 7.73 ct. teal Afghanistan tourmaline and 0.43 ct. t.w. diamonds, $7,500*

“If something’s ill-proportioned, it really bothers me and I have to fix it,” she adds. “It made my wedding planning crazy because I couldn’t let things slide. But for jewelry or how I wanted to do architecture when I was 12, a lot of these things come through. It’s this math that I’ve been looking at my whole life. And jewelry is a way of interpreting it at a smaller, artsy scale.”

Top: Three-stone ring in 18k gold with 4.26 ct. Zambian emerald and 0.37 ct. t.w. diamonds, $7,800; Sarah Rabie