View the Collection here.

Shortly after college in 1991, Catherine became a young entrepreneur with the launch of her eponymous jewellery business, and has since run her company along with her family of four children with the grace and humour for which she is known. Prior to raising her large brood, Catherine had a Walton street shop, reminiscent of her living room, and a sanctuary during my London visits. Somewhat eccentric, with its Gracie wallpaper and Napoleonic furnishings, I do remember the collection of Roman helmets she used for jewellery displays. It remains my favourite ever shop.

With an older family now, Catherine no longer just caters to us friends and collectors/addicts who covet her bold rings. She can now be found at Five Story in New York, and Neapolitan Collection in Chicago, allowing others to experience the sense of fabulous that is Catherine Prevost…

Here she answers our questions:

What’s in your make up bag..?
My favourite make up for great looking skin by Terry Eclat Opulent and Chanel Lipgloss

Do you have a beauty secret?
Beauty secret? Do Yoga and laugh ALOT

What would be your desert island essentials?
Chanel 50+ Suncream for the face

What do you wear on a fat day?
Fat day.. My favourite Seven for mankind white jeans that are a bit too big and a floaty silk top

How would your female friends describe your style?
Female friends would probably describe my style as Classic Chic ….they would also say I am not good at the Casual look!

What’s the most treasured item in your wardrobe?
Most treasured item in my wardrobe is my first Andrew Gn coat from Bergdorfs

Is there anything in your wardrobe you should get rid of but can’t?
I should get rid of my first Chanel jacket (it’s way too small) but am saving it for one of my daughters

What do you never leave home without?
Never leave home without one of my rings

Hot date night with your husband/boyfriend, what do you wear?
What I wear for date night is a black jumpsuit and my favourite Balmain tuxedo jacket

When home alone, what do you wear?
When home alone .. I wear Lulu Lemon yoga clothes

What do you wear to bed?
To bed I wear vintage Pucci nightdress

You’re the fashion police for a day, what do you ban?
As fashion police ..I would ban crop tops and hot pants

Have you ever worn anything you now regret?
Something I wish I had never worn was too much eye make up and big hair in the 1980′s

How high is too high a heel?
I do not like heels that you actually cannot walk in.. I live in wedges !

How old is too old for jeans?
I think that you are never too old for jeans.

If you could live in any other time for its fashion, when would you choose?
If I could have lived in another fashion time it would have to be 16th century Venice.. I loved those cinched in long velvet gowns with flowing trains..

What is your most recent purchase?
My most recent purchase was Gucci red white and blue wedges with snaffle detail.. Love them!

 Can you judge a book by its cover?
I think you cannot always judge a book by its cover

 What are your bad habits?
My bad habits are being slightly OCD, watching ipad in bed, and occasionally late night espresso martini nights with girlfriends!

What’s your greatest extravagance?
Greatest extravagance is always using our best silver and linens

 What are your guilty pleasures?
Guilty pleasures are Net a Porter shopping, eating peanut butter on a spoon, and drinking really good red wine

 What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Best advice I have ever had is … Do not postpone joy

 What’s your favorite smell?
Favourite smell is fresh jasmine, or my husbands cologne

What’s your idea of a great holiday?
My greatest holiday is always on our boat in Capri surrounded by close friends

What are you most proud of?
I am Most proud of my four children

What are you least proud of?
I am Least proud of being insensitive to people’s feelings when I was younger

What is your pure bliss?
Pure bliss is a hot candlelit bath after a day in the snow

Who or what would you like to be reincarnated as in your next life?
I would like to be reincarnated as my mothers dogs.. They have the a great life

What would you eat for your last supper?
My last supper would be really fabulous Green Chicken curry with sticky rice

If you could meet someone from history who would it be?
If I could meet some one from history it would be Madame de Pompadour or Catherine the Great

Yes or no to a nip and a tuck?
A gentle nip and tuck when needed is a good thing .. But never overdone!

Do you have a favorite purse or bag?
Favourite purse is my Kotur gold clutch and my Kotur striped acrylic summer bag

On a scale of one-to-ten, how good looking are you?
I would have to let someone else decide on my good looking factor

How would you like to be remembered?
And I would like to be remembered as a good friend ,wife and mother who also made some beautiful jewels

Catherine’s Picks:

Catherine Prevost Jewels is sold at her online store, Neapolitan Collection in Chicago, and Five Story New York. 

Photo courtesy of Architectural Digest, Photographer Simon Upton

Click on images below to shop:

Now a nutritional therapist and naturopath, Rosemary’s career path has taken quite a turn – less about the parties than it is about green juices, these days. A mother of three, she lives in the English countryside with her husband the artist Jake Chapman and her three daughters, pursuing a life that, on the face of it, seems far away from those catwalk days. What we love about Rosemary, however, is her fresh and upfront approach – be that to the lifestyle she leads or to her own personal style. Refreshingly honest the realities of healthy living, she’s a firm believer in the 80% good, 80% of the time school of thinking – still as up for kicking her heels up with her friends as she is for the wholesome country life. For her, living a life in balance, one that celebrates the finer things whilst still allowing time and room for a bit of looking after oneself, is the way to go – and we’re inclined to agree with her. Factor in the sort of easygoing attitude to fashion we at KOTUR love to celebrate (though it helps when you look that good in jeans and a T-shirt,) and you have an all round lovely lady to look to for all sorts and kinds of advice. Here, she answers our questions.

Rosemary’s book Juice is available on Amazon.

Q: What’s in your make-up bag?
Charlotte Tilbury mascara, Sisley lip balm, Laura Mercier blush, Shu Umura eyelash curlers and La Roche-Posay Factor 50 Suncscreen – I wear sun protection every day.  

Q: Do you have a beauty secret?
I use Aromatherapy Associates oils because they are wonderful for giving your skin that lovely glow, and I try to help my skin from the inside out by kicking off the day with one of my skin juices, like my Fresh Faced Green Juice. Food wise, anything orange is also really good for the skin because it tends to contain lots of antioxidants and beta-carotene, so that’s things like carrots, papaya and sweet potato.

Q: What would be your desert island essentials?
My phone, plenty of avocados and my little dachshund. I’d be so happy with that. I should probably say my husband and my kids, too though!

Q: What do you wear on a fat day?
I’ve got quite a lot of long, jersey tops that I wear over jeans – they’re pretty good at covering it all up when you want to.

Q: How would your female friends describe your style?
Pretty lazy! I’m a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl, I like to keep it simple. Girly doesn’t really suit me because I’m tall. There are occasions when I’ll put a dress on, but they’re getting more and more rare.

Q: What’s the most treasured item in your wardrobe?
At the moment, it’s some silk kimono dresses my friend made because they’re going to be great for summer.  I’ve also got a Versace dress from Gianni’s last collection that I treasure and two dresses from Lee McQueen’s last collection that I love and will always look after.

Q: Is there anything in your wardrobe you should get rid of but can’t?
The Ugg boots should probably go, but I live in the countryside and sometimes you just do need to wear slippers outside.

Q: What do you never leave home without?
I try not to leave without my wallet and keys, but that doesn’t always happen! And I normally take my perfume with me, too. At the moment I’m wearing Bella Freud’s signature scent. I also love a bit of Prada, Iris for summer.

Q: Hot date night, what do you wear?
My jeans, but I’ll jazz them up with high heels, a scarf by Rockins, something like one of Kate’s great shirts for Equipment and a bit of eyeliner.

Q: When home alone, what do you wear?
I’ve got some pretty slinky silk pajamas from Equipment that I wear with a simple vest top.

Q: What do you wear to bed?
I love a little cotton babydoll nightie.

Q: You’re the fashion police for a day, what do you ban?
Padded push-up bras. Not a fan.  Not for me!

Q: Have you ever worn anything you now regret?
I’m sure I have, but I’ve probably blocked it out of my memory. Oh, I did wear a very silly hat to my brother’s wedding. I was trying to be grown up and sophisticated and when I look at the photos I just cringe. Never again.

Q: How high is too high a heel?
I’m not great in super high heels. A bit of a platform always helps, though.

Q: How old is too old for jeans?
I definitely haven’t got there yet – I’m going to be wearing them for a very long time.

Q: If you could live in any other time for its fashion, when would you choose?
Probably the 1970’s

Q: What is your most recent purchase?
Some bikinis for the summer from Melissa Odabash

Q: Can you judge a book by its cover?
No, I don’t think you can. Because I can think of many times when we can all be a little bit judgmental, and not always in the best way.  

Q: What are your bad habits?
I’m always late, and always in a rush – I annoy myself with it. And I probably drink a little too much.

Q: What’s your greatest extravagance?
Holidays. I do love a holiday!

Q: What are your guilty pleasures?
Crisps from time to time! And ice cream. I really do love it. I’ve got to stop buying it.

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Just the other day, I was having a flap about something and someone said, “Stop looking at the top of the escalator. Just look at your feet and take one step at a time.” I think that’s pretty sound advice.

Q: What’s your favorite smell?
I love the smell of fresh cut grass in the English countryside I get in my garden. And I love the smell of the sea and the heat that you only get on holiday when it’s really, really hot.

Q: What’s your idea of a great holiday?
Being by the beach, somewhere I can swim in the sea everyday, with my girls. That’s what I love.

Q: What are you most proud of?
My kids, I think. I’m proud of them and quite amazed by them a lot of the time.

Q: What are you least proud of?
To be honest, I try not to beat myself up; it’s such a negative thing to do.  Its not useful and it doesn’t help.

Q: What is your pure bliss?
A lazy duvet day with the kids at home, all cozy on the sofa together, is my idea of heaven.

Q: Who or what would you like to be reincarnated as in your next life?
My little dog Ruby Red has the nicest life.

Q: What would you eat for your last supper?
A piece of buckwheat toast with avocado, crushed garlic, tomato, salt and pepper. I could literally eat that forever.

Q: If you could meet someone from history who would it be?
I’d love to be in a room with Lee McQueen again. Just because we had such a great time, and I wish I’d paid more attention. You take things for granted, and then they’re gone.

Q: Yes or no to a nip and a tuck?
At the moment, no. But in ten years, who knows. Why not?

Q: Do you have a favorite purse or bag?
The classic Balenciaga motorcycle bag. I’ve had mine for ages, it’s all beaten up now and I still use it all the time.

Q: Do you have a favorite KOTUR bag?
Your raffia Morley would be great on holiday.

Q: On a scale of one-to-ten, how good looking are you?\
Oh wow. Lets go for seven!

Q: How would you like to be remembered?
It would be amazing if anyone remembered me full stop!

 Billy Baldwin – Decorate

One of the first books that got me into decorating, I came across Billy Baldwin on my mother’s bookshelf. What struck me initially was that he had this tiny apartment (as did I, at the time,) and yet he still managed to create a fantastic space in which all of the elements worked together to make something so visually appealing. His book wasn’t just about decorating, although he did have this wonderful, snappy style, it was more about living. Yes, he had his iconic pieces such as his slipper chair, but it all seemed to be more about how people interacted, about pulling up a pouf and having a conversation, than perfectly placed pieces. It struck me as a very good place to start.

Dorothy Draper – Decorating is Fun and In The Pink

Dorothy Draper inspired a whole era of design in Hollywood Regency. One of the first professional women to decorate, her iconic spaces created at the Carlyle, the Fairmont and the Metropolitan Museum’s original restaurant around their fountain (where I spent many childhood afternoons,) still inspire countless imitations. At KOTUR we often refer to her bold use of color and geometric patterns (she was famous for her chequerboard floors,) in our collections.

 Tony Duquette – More is More

Duquette was a set designer, jewelry designer, costume designer and decorator, and his maximalist approach is something I’ve always admired. Specifically, his contribution to America’s adoption of Chinoiserie, and the lavish sort of lacquer filled, glossy and sumptuous interiors of the 1960’s he produced have inspired me both at home and at Kotur, where we often look to Duquette for a little dusting of magic.

David Hicks – On Decoration

A full set of Hicks’ original, out-of-print books bought at abe.com is one of my most treasured possessions. The debonair British King of Print who reigned supreme in the 60’s and 70’s was known for his unabashed use of color and geometric design, no matter how grand the project he was dealing with. His prints still seem just as of the moment today as they did when they were first produced in his heyday – I have his wallpaper in my son’s bedroom and his printed linen forms the canopy of my bed. Eclectic and unfussy, yet always attention grabbing in the best sort of way, Hicks is a designer I have looked to for inspiration time and time again.

 Photo courtesy of amazon.com

The Rajmata Gayatri Devi was never going to live an ordinary life. Born in 1919, she was the daughter of the Prince and Princess of Cooch Behar, a state in eastern India. Known as Ayesha, she was a tomboy – rumor has it she shot her first panther aged 12. She first met her husband before she was even a teenager. The then 21-year-old Maharajah of Jaipur was the country’s most glamorous man, the handsome Prince of Rajasthan’s magical pink city and a famously good polo player. Later, whilst she was at finishing school in London, they became secretly engaged, much to the consternation of both sides’ relatives. He already had two wives, both married for reasons of state, and her family was concerned that the independently minded Princess would be stifled by life in a much more traditional royal household as his third consort. Theirs was a love match, however, and they married in 1940 nonetheless. Together, they ruled Jaipur until it was acceded into the new Dominion of India after independence.  In 1970, her husband died suddenly in England and Ayesha became Rajmata, the Queen Mother of her city.

Maharani Gayatri Devi a polo player herself encourages the game

Gayatri Devi in her office after joining C Rajagopalachari’s Swatantra Party in the 1960s

But Ayesha Jaipur was much more than a consort. She played tennis, drove her own car, rode horses and joined in polo games at a time when royal women were supposed to keep purdah, a custom of segregation, all the while nudging her country towards change as she went. She opened a famous school for girls. She entered politics, winning a seat in India’s parliament in 1962 with what was then the biggest landslide victory ever recorded. Later on, during the political upheaval of Indira Gandhi’s notorious State of Emergency she would be imprisoned for six months.

Gayatri Devi at Rambagh Palace

Gayatri Devi pictured by Cecil Beaton in 1940

Maharani Gayatri Devi with Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962

And all of this took place against a backdrop of impeccable style. Encapsulating a time when all of India’s lavish regal traditions and exoticism blended with the jet set allure of the Hollywood era to bring about one of the most glamorous times in history, Ayesha’s reign was legendary. Named one of the world’s most beautiful women by Vogue, who cited her ‘a dream in saris and jewels,’ she was a vision whether clad in her bright chiffon saris or immaculately cut jodhpurs. The couple’s principle residence was the Rambagh Palace, a cream, sprawling confection of Mughal and Rajput architecture set in majestic gardens on the outskirts of the city. It was there that Cecil Beaton famously photographed the young Maharani in 1943, and there that she entertained everyone from the Queen to Jackie Kennedy. Visitors would find elephants in the gardens and custom Rolls Royce’s on the driveway.

 In her memoir, A Princess Remembers, she recorded, “When the Maharaja first took me to our residence at the Rambagh Palace, I was enchanted. There was a high-ceilinged, airy bedroom all in pink with pale voile curtains, pastel divans and chaises lounges. A large sitting room was filled with objet’s d’art from the Jaipur collection. Small jeweled animals, rose quartz and jade, and curved daggers with white jade hilts and jewels were displayed in glass cabinets. Jade boxes were encrusted with semi-precious stones in floral designs, and heavy crystal bowls were filled with flowers. My maids helped me change quickly into Rajasthani costume in auspicious reds, pinks and oranges, and to put on more jewelry, never forgetting the dozens of ivory bangles.”

However rarefied her life, however, Ayesha was not precious. Her approach was natural, and more than a little tongue in cheek. Once, when asked of her beauty secrets, she replied, “Tell them I drink a bottle of whiskey a day, and I dye my hair black with boot polish.” It is this casual approach to glamour, and its blend with a game changing approach to life that we at Kotur so admire. As champions of women who stand out from the crowd, she is impossible not to revere. She died aged 90 in 2009. The most glamorous Princess of her era, she has become the stuff of legend, a beacon of glamour who strove for modernity in extraordinary time gone by.

Photo Courtesy of Cecil Beaton, c. 1943, telegraph, pinterest, dailymail, wmagazine

What’s in your make-up bag?
a Tom Ford Bronzing powder and “Lip Laquer”

Do you have a beauty secret?
Maroccan unroasted Argan oil for hair and skin 

How would your female friends describe your style ?
Casual and down to earth 

Most treasured item in your wardrobe ?
My striped beige and blue Navajo poncho once purchased in Santa Fe …

Anything in the wardrobe you should get rid of but you can’t?
A pair of battered cowboy boots dating back to my Wellesley College days …

What do you never leave home without ?
A smile ..

What do you wear on a hot date night?
Nothing !

What do you wear to bed?
Always a white T- shirt …

How old is too old for jeans?
Never too old!

What is your most recent purchase ?
A very fat lens – The Canon 85/ 1.2 ” dream lens”  as I like to call it !

Can you judge a book by its cover ?
Generally no BUT ……

What are your bad habits?
The ones I don’t like but keep repeating !

What’s your greatest extravagance?
Creative dawdling …

What are your guilty pleasures?
Being where I’m not meant to be, seeing what I’m not meant to see 

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
“Know Thyself”!  

What’s your favorite smell?
Persian nights aired with Jasmin…

What’s your idea of a great holiday?
Not knowing where you’ re going to end up …

What are you most proud of?
My children and my life in reflection.

What are you least proud of?
Reflecting on regrets..

What is pure bliss in your mind?
Moments lost in Nature …

What would you eat for your last supper ?
SMALL portions of BIG ideas 

If you could meet someone from history …who would it be ?
Omar Khayam , 12 th century Persian polymath and lover of life 

Yes or no to a nip and a tuck?
why not !

Do you have a favorite purse or bag?
|A black vintage quilted Chanel flap from the 80s , a hand- me – down from my mother and a classic  forever!

Do you have a favorite KOTUR bag?
My large navy Morley Snakeskin Clutch- love the shape,  love the size !

On a scale of one-to-ten, how good looking are you?
Mirror mirror on the wall……

How would you like to be remembered ?
As one who cared  …as one who loved …

Sending our congratulations to Vogue China

Our new style for Fall are the Zelda. It was designed not specifically as evening shoes but rather as footwear to lift your mood or outfit whatever time of day you may find yourself in. They’re designed in a way that wraps around the ankle, making them extremely comfortable and secure as well as shoes that can easily transition from day to night.

How do you imagine wearing them?

The Zelda is more of a boot, and with her purple suede upper and studded detailing is my personal pick. The deep plum color is excellent for Fall and she’s simply so easy to wear for any ensemble. They come with our signature Kotur gold stars embossed on their soles – these are shoes that leave a galaxy of stars trailing behind them as they go about their business. Who knows, they may help you to as well!