‘I had no clue what I was doing': Jennifer Meyer on how pushing through uncertainty leads to creativity

Fast Company

24-05-2025

Jennifer Meyer always knew she wanted to work in fashion. It probably comes, she says, from the hours she spent in her grandmother's Santa Monica, California, apartment, playing with art supplies, and the small kiln her grandmother kept on the kitchen counter. 'She did a lot of enameling,' says Meyer, an LA-based jewelry designer. 'She had all of these colors and plaques to put things on; wiring. I would design things with her for fun; I have this love of design from her.'
Still, as the daughter of an entertainment executive, Meyer didn't really have a road map for a career in design. She completed her education on the East Coast, studying child and family psychology, and landed her first job in magazines, which she ultimately parlayed to PR jobs at Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren. 'I wanted to start my own thing,' says Meyer. 'I had this idea for jewelry, but I had no idea how to do it.'
In 2005, Meyer made some basic sketches—her first a riff on a leaf design—and began knocking on doors, armed with equal parts curiosity and tenacity. So began the launch of her line, Jennifer Meyer Jewelry. Now, 20 years later, Meyer describes herself as self-taught. She's leveraged her love of the natural world and her instincts for a simple, unfussy aesthetic to guide a business that's become as popular with Jennifer Aniston and Meghan Markle as millennials and suburban fortysomethings.
If the door said jeweler, I knocked on it. I knew nothing. It was trial and error. I had a bad sketch of a leaf on paper. I had no clue what I was doing—which, by the way, as I look back was the best way to learn. I made a few pieces, and that's how I understood what I was doing.
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