Inside John Hardy’s plan to modernize a 50-year-old jewelry brand

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For luxury brands today, opening a new flagship store is more than about simply selling products. It’s an experience.

Just look at John Hardy, which recently unveiled a new 1,800-square-foot SoHo flagship as part of its broader effort to modernize the 50-year-old Bali-founded jewelry brand.

Located at 147 Spring Street, the new space replaces the brand’s former Prince Street flagship.

Designed alongside former Coach creative director Reed Krakoff and Studio Vehlen, the store features blond oak flooring, slatted oak walls, a terracotta-toned salon, and a 25-foot handwoven bamboo sculpture inspired by John Hardy’s signature chain motif.

For Matt Tepper, president of John Hardy, the space represents a physical manifestation of the broader transformation the company has been undergoing over the last several years.

“This store team did an amazing job of really bringing to life the perfect expression of the new John Hardy,” Tepper told Retail Brew. “We’ve been elevating all of our channels, we’ve been elevating how we look and feel in our wholesale retail partners, and we want to do the same for our SoHo flagship.”

Total recall: Krakoff, who also serves as the creative chair at John Hardy, played a major role not only in the store’s design, but the transformation of the company.

“He really took a step back about three years ago, right after he came in, and helped us rethink the entire company and where we fit within the industry landscape,” Tepper said.

An important part of rethinking things for Krakoff was modernizing some of the brand’s collections to appeal to new customers without getting too far away from the brand’s existing clientele by leaning heavily into what the Tepper describes as an elevated yet relaxed “coastal vibe.”

“It was this really nice space that Reed found and navigated us through, which creates an elevated luxury feel for us, but, but still remains true to our Balinese heritage,” he explained.

And while John Hardy has both a strong men’s and women’s business, Tepper said women customers in particular are drawn to the brand’s bold, expressive aesthetic and often build layered collections over time through stacking and repeat purchases.

At the same time, the company is also seeing especially strong momentum in higher-end jewelry, with gold sales growing nearly twice as fast as silver and pieces priced above $5,000 emerging as its fastest-growing category. This trend has also helped it expand its appeal to younger and newer shoppers, particularly through e-commerce and social media, as they increasingly discover the brand digitally before engaging with physical retail stores, and creating a more connected omnichannel experience.

“Reed and the team have designed a few collections with the intent of expanding our audience into—not necessarily younger—but just into new areas,” Tepper said.

One such collection is “Lovestruck,” which incorporates lab-grown diamonds as a design element rather than simply a lower-cost alternative to mined stones. The collection has already become a significant contributor to the brand’s e-commerce business while also attracting both new and existing customers.

Looking ahead, Tepper said e-commerce and wholesale partnerships with retailers like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s will remain central growth drivers, though retail expansion is also firmly on the roadmap. Currently, however, the stores remain John Hardy’s major focus with the SoHo flagship leading the pack.

“We think about all of our channels as an ecosystem,” Tepper said. “Part of [the consumer journey] was creating a more experiential feel for our flagship store, so that whether it’s their first touch with the brand or they’re an existing loyal client, they get an elevated experience wherever they experience us.”