How This Jewelry Brand Built a Booming Business–Without Playing the Celebrity Game

Though it has been a year since Joshua Gaynor took over as president of Lugano, he still can’t help but marvel at the differences between this company and the one he came from. After seven years at Bulgari’s New York City office, where he rose through the ranks to become managing director of high jewelry for North America, he was poached last March. And while the job required a move to Lugano’s headquarters in breezy Newport Beach, Calif., he says the most notable change is not the laid-back West Coast lifestyle. It’s Lugano’s approach to finding and engaging customers. “The vast majority of clients here were not high-jewelry clients before Lugano,” he tells Robb Report. “And that is something that, in my experience, is very, very unusual in the industry.” 

Typically, big jewelry houses make you climb the purchasing ladder before granting entrée to the realm of haute joaillerie. But at Lugano, how much you’ve spent or whether you’re an established collector matters less than whether you espouse its leaders’ sense of social responsibility. Founded in 2004 by husband-and-wife team Moti and Idit Ferder, who donate widely, the company has cultivated a network of clients uniformly interested in giving back. As a result, Gaynor says part of his role is to connect with new collectors “through philanthropic and community-engagement work, which allows us to naturally meet people who are ultra-high-net-worth with a shared set of values.” 

Moti Ferder can speak extensively about any of the more than 100 charities the house works with—and he hopes his clients can do the same for the causes and organizations they’re passionate about. “It’s not just about writing a check, being philanthropic, and putting your name in bold letters,” he says. “The part that’s important for us is in the human connection, the relationships, and the fact that people feel like we are a leader in the community.” To drive the point home, he adds that the company has been sponsoring some nonprofits, such as the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County, for nearly two decades. 

The ethos resonates with Lugano’s down-to-earth yet powerful clientele so much so that the company persuaded eight of its VIPs to star in its latest ad campaign free of charge. The images include influential philanthropists such as Georgina Bloomberg, Sheila Johnson, and Jane Holzer, as well as real-estate and restaurant entrepreneurs Ling and Charlie Zhang. It’s quite a contrast from the jewelry houses that pay million-dollar-plus contracts to A-list celebrities. 

The strategy also doesn’t rely on opulent jewelry. You might see a sizable three-carat pink diamond on a pendant necklace here, but don’t expect any gala-ready chest armor. “It’s very important for us and for our clients that the jewelry is really wearable,” explains Gaynor. “We don’t make giant red-carpet pieces. We make incredible, beautiful jewelry that can be worn.” 

Bucking convention appears to be paying off. Lugano has grown to net revenues of approximately $321 million from January 2024 to the end of September. To keep the momentum going, Ferder and Gaynor plan to open a new boutique in Chicago this month and have other locations in the works. As Ferder puts it, “We do things in depth, and we do them with longevity.”