A new jewelry brand professes a love for pearls. Roseate has only been selling pearl and pearl-inspired jewelrysince May, but its founder spent the majority of her careerworking for a far larger retailer: Tiffany & Company.

A Tiffany Veteran With A Passion For Pearls

Roseate was conceived in 2021, while Pamela Cloud, who worked on the businessside of Tiffany for 25 years, finally overseeing the company's merchandising, was catching up with her former employer, Michael J. Kowalski, over lunch. Tiffany's CEO from 1999 to 2015, with a brief return in 2017, and board chairman from 2003 to 2017.

Ms. Cloud said in an interview at Roseate's offices in New York's Little Italy district, a co-working space:

The leitmotif of Roseate, which Ms. Cloud founded the following year, is pearls. (Mr. Kowalski, together with Ms. Cloud and her husband, Christopher Cloud, was an early investor and is now one of the company's three board members.)

While Roseate includes some classic pieces, such as 10-millimeter South Sea pearl stud earringsin 18-karat rose gold, the majority of the designs are casual and trendy.

Wands, for example, are slender pendantsor drop earringsstudded with lab-grown diamondsand mother-of-pearl, and the TreasureLocks collection comprises necklacesmade of gold beads that resemble pearls.

Eddie Borgo, who is based in New York and Los Angeles, developed the 50-piece debut collection. According to Ms. Cloud, he brought a personal perspective to the project, "but also this design point of view of nature and water and water drops and the oceans."

His designs were created by artists in New York, Rhode Island, and California, and the pearls were sourced from Kamoka, a Tahitian farming enterprise, and the Paspaley Pearling Company in Australia.

Roseate's pricing range from $150 for a small WaterDrop sterling silverbracelet to $39,500 for an 18-inch South Sea pearl necklace, with the majority costing between $1,000 and $3,000. Ms. Cloud said:

The majority of its purchases are made through its website, but a pop-up store in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown district is set to remain open until November. Another pop-up shop in New York's West Village is scheduled for later this summer.

The corporation has partnered with organizations that support oysters and clean water — both of which are required for pearl manufacturing — which appears to be purposeful. "it needs to have an authentic link to the product or the persona behind the product," said Lucie Greene, creator of Light Years, a trend forecasting organization, when a corporation chooses to identify itself with a charity.

“Generally, there’s more emphasis on oceans, and water and its link to our environment and climate change,” she said, “so for a brand like this that is launching and is relatively new, that makes a lot of sense.”

Roseate donates 20% (or $300) of the proceeds from the sale of two of their $1,500 designs to charity. The Billion Oyster Project, which helps restore New York Harbor's oyster reefs, benefits from the sale of a Bloom Wand necklace; Conservation International, which works to safeguard oceans and other living ecosystems, benefits from the sale of a Water Wand pendant.

Working with pearls brings Ms. Cloud's career full circle, as she was chief merchandising officer when she left Tiffany in 2019 (just before it was acquired by LVMH Mot Hennessy Louis Vuitton).