Jenna Grosfeld is thinking outside the jewelry box.
At The Couture Show in Las Vegas, the L.A. designer will debut homewares under the label Casa Blake, including cocktail napkins, dishes and candles decorated with her signature Mariner and Nautical Link motifs, starting at $190 retail.
“They’re good gifting items and great on the counter,” says Grosfeld, a lifelong collector of vintage jewelry and ceramics, which fill the jewel box of an office she designs out of in her glam 1936 Bel Air home, whose previous owners included Dean Martin, Tom Jones and Nicolas Cage.
“So many motifs for my jewelry originally came from ceramics,” she explains, pointing out a Deco-like pink opaline vase from the ’80s, a shell vase from the ’50s, and a Murano glass bird as examples of things that have inspired her nautical and nature motifs.
Founded in 2014, Jenna Blake mixes colors, stones and historical eras from Art Deco to the ’70s, always with a modern, casual touch. In 2019, Grosfeld launched e-commerce and moved into wholesale, picking up Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Elyse Walker, Hirshleifers and Broken English as accounts, among others. (Prices are $1,500 to $50,000.) She’s also cultivated a celebrity following, including Rachel Brosnahan, Saoirse Ronan, Brandi Carlile, Reese Witherspoon and podcaster Alex Cooper.
The brand is continuing to expand.
In June, the designer will begin selling on Net-a-porter. And she recently launched a partnership with Will Kahn of Will’s Notebook to demystify the art of vintage jewelry collecting. Once a month, they will launch a collection on Shopify curated around a certain look, creating editorial shots showing how to wear it, and telling the story of each piece.
“We want to make it more approachable for younger people, and teach them how to wear it, because wearing vintage jewelry with jeans or a T-shirt is great,” says Grosfeld, who inspires customers by posting photos of herself on Instagram, wearing colorful Elder Statesman sweaters or Chanel jackets with her own stacked pieces.
At Couture, she will show her new Eyecon collection of jewelry, paying homage to fashion divas of the ’70s, and bridging the gap between ancient and modern mythology.
“It starts with one piece,” she says, showing off a diamond and sapphire pendant in an abstracted eye motif. It comes in myriad combinations, mounted on a chain necklace, a leather cord bracelet, as a pinkie ring, and more.
“It’s more the one and done feel; these are bolder pieces,” she explained of deviating from her signature layered look. Also new? Palm leaf and double-decker variations on her popular fringe necklaces.
Stone mariner leather cord bracelets are also a fresh style. “You can take your gold stack and add one of these and it’s a great way to incorporate color and casualness,” she said.
Grosfeld is also making moves in the hospitality space. Her husband is L.A. developer Jason Grosfeld, chairman and chief executive officer of IronGate, who specializes in luxury residential and resort properties, among them Costa Palmas on the East Cape of Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, where there is currently a Four Seasons Hotel, and an Aman Hotel is under construction.
The duo recently started their own boutique hotel brand called Casa Blake within their real estate portfolio, with Aspen and Hawaii hotels under the moniker coming soon, all with an eye toward growing the designer’s vision into a lifestyle.
The Grosfelds’ 141-room Casa Blake hotel and residence will open in Cabo San Lucas at the end of 2024. “The interiors are so fun, I had a good time doing it with Martin Brudnizki. It’s an amalgamation of his style and ours with this whimsical, dreamy beach concept that’s a bit of a throwback but with a European vibe even though it’s in Mexico.”
Grosfeld worked on the textiles, furniture, finishings, even the doorknobs, always incorporating vintage collectibles. “It’s much like designing jewelry, mixing shapes, colors, textures, sizes, that’s what I love doing,” she said. “And I’ve started to notice accounts are buying more into the lifestyle and the look. They say they want the whole Jenna Blake curation.”