I think I've come full circle.
A charm bracelet, a fashion career in New York, a jewelry line in department stores, a boutique in Houston — and now a smaller, more personal version of all of it, in one place.
As a little girl, I loved to play with my mother's chunky gold charm bracelet. She collected the charms on trips with my father, and each one meant something — a place they'd been, a year, a story she'd tell me again if I asked.
I was in love with the idea of being able to wear a lifetime of memories. That thought never really left me.
After several years working in the fashion industry in New York, I took a creative leap and started designing jewelry of my own. Charmed Circle was born.
Before long it was selling at Henri Bendel, Bloomingdale's, and specialty stores around the world. It turned up in Oprah and InStyle, and on Gwen Stefani and Olivia Wilde. Somewhere in the middle of all that — while raising four children — I also co-owned a little boutique in Houston called Cakewalk.
The most treasured jewelry is the kind that brings you back to a person or a moment you love.
That belief still runs through everything I choose. It's why I care as much about a locket someone wore fifty years ago as I do about a piece I designed myself.
The world has changed since those department store days, and so has the way I want to work. Smaller. More considered. Closer to the people actually wearing the things.
What Charmed Circle is now
Years ago I wrote that my hope was for this to eventually hold all the things I love — travel, food, culture, and fashion — and that you shouldn't be surprised to find things here beyond jewelry.
That's what it has become. Jewelry is still the heart of it. Around it now sit vintage finds, designer pieces I've sourced myself, objects for the table, and notes from wherever I've been looking.
What you'll find here
What I find New-season designer pieces bought in small quantities, and vintage that exists only once.
What I design My own jewelry, handcrafted in small runs — built to be added to over years.
What I learn Where to stay, what to ask for, and what the concierge told me that isn't in the guidebook.
Gina Cartwright Founder, Charmed Circle