In a nutshell Diane Kordas is a New Jersey girl who married a Greek boy and mastered the art of everyday diamonds. Diane married Stephanos when she was 19, right before she started a Ready-to-Wear business, Stasik and Szivo, in New York; after they were married the couple were transferred to London where they have lived happily for 23 years. Whilst their daughters were growing up the family holidayed at their house on the island of Mykonos; one day Diane travelled to Athens and in a dilettante way she fell upon the Athenian craftsmen district where she designed some bracelets to try out on friends and teenagers. She talked to the personal shopper at Harrods, who talked to a stylist and as if in a fairy tale Diane was called to a London Mews house, filled with white suits of all sizes, belonging to Madonna’s chorus girls. Madonna ordered a bunch of bracelets and now DianeKordasJewellery has 38 stockists in 30 countries, including Matches, Dover Street Market and of course Harrods. In January DianeKordasJewellery was the No1 selling Brand on UK largest online luxury retailer.
Diane Kordas herself is full of exuberant goodwill, our chat strayed into the personal, the past, the confidential and the future; this reporter concluded she has a heart of gold. After thirteen years as a fine jewellery designer she is excited by her idea of designing pieces that form a lasting connection with the wearer; she misses and is so proud of her girls, who she laments are working in Los Angeles and New York.
An effervescent leggy blonde wearing torn jeans, studded ankle boots and a ginormous cardigan over a T-shirt, she is also dripping in precious stones. She is wearing a multi-coloured collection of her zig-zag pop art rings, a rosary, some bracelets and earrings, yet the ensemble is elegantly understated. The point is her designs are twinkly, quirky and inexpensive enough to wear at any time during any 24 hours. Her customers vary from sweet sixteens who love the Heartbeat series to the sophisticated woman who prefers the Bolo styles, Diane’s designs are seen on working women in offices and on it-girls out clubbing. Her muses are museums, youth culture and listening; she unreservedly admires her mentor Kate White, former editor of Cosmopolitan, who has helped her to avoid mistakes, and her daughters who keep her tagged into the zeitgeist.
Her recent diamond innovation is the Amulette collection, twelve 18k gold phials embellished with pavé diamonds that can be filled with a signature fragrance, your own or your loved one’s; this is her first step into connection pieces as fragrance for most people is very personal and sentimental. Soon to be launched is the ID tag collection carrying the glittering swivelling words: real love-/ boss lady/ genius man or marry me, sure to be popular with millennials.
Kordas has dispensed with her own shop, preferring the internet where she can display all her successful lines which she edits and adds to frequently, she is definitely one to keep an eye on.