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The Miami Art Journal

Miami's source for art, luxury living & technology Est. 2026

In Conversation

Jules Kim Serves A Killer Topspin

The Jeweler To Superstars Shows Us How To Win

The Editors ·

Jules Kim Serves A Killer Topspin

The most sought after jeweler to pop superstars and sports champions has set more trends than you can count. Creating exceptional pieces for exceptional people, Jules shows us exactly the perspective that has kept her sharp and always ahead of the game, always serving something astonishing:

EditorsYou landed in New York in 2002 and started making pieces to go with your own look before any of it was a business. What were you trying to solve for yourself that nothing on the market solved?

Jules KimLiving on the LES, I spent a lot of time south of Houston, north of Canal. Canal Street was this jewelry haven of classic NYC style, and I felt the need to respond to what jewelry looked and felt like at the time. I wanted something street, but elevated. Something that belonged to the world I was actually living in.

EditorsThe bar ring goes back to that same period and became the thing people knew you by. When you made it, did you know you’d made something new, or did that only become clear once you saw it on other people?

Jules KimI had no idea what a “market” was at the time, so there was no need to survey one. I just knew making a box ring that spoke to a knuckleduster was clever. I had no clue it would build so much traction.

EditorsYou’ve described fine jewelry as the most boring market to invade. What specifically was boring about it, and how much of that has actually changed since?

Jules KimI still think it’s pretty boring, for the most part. The raw materials that create jewelry are so highly valued that design sometimes gets forgotten. The designers and brands that approach those materials with a real creative point of view have a much better chance of creating actual interest. Stop making thoughtless product!

EditorsYour work covers and curves and hangs on the body rather than sitting on it. Where did that instinct come from, and how do you know when a piece is finished?

Jules KimNormally I operate with a brief of some sort, so in a way the piece completes itself. There are certain design values that define my work and aesthetic. As an artist, I agree with Nina Simone about our duty to respond to the context of our times. That approach informs how I design projects and collections, including how the jewelry relates to the body.

EditorsAs a veteran on the front lines of jewelry innovation, what part of the practice is working best right now?

Jules KimI continue to bend standards into contemporary artifacts. I look at familiar shapes and conventions, figure out which ones deserve an innovative tweak, and leap into the fun from there.

EditorsWhat are you making now that you couldn’t have made ten years ago, whether for technical reasons or because the audience wasn’t there yet?

Jules KimI just launched a diamond tennis collection. I could never have afforded the materials to build something at this scale 25 years ago. But after decades of diligence and growth within my community, I can now form important partnerships that allow me to explore new realms, and reach audiences who haven’t been exposed to my point of view before.

EditorsWhere are you taking the practice now, having had the career you’ve had?

Jules KimI’m focused on building relationships and audiences outside the traditional jewelry and fashion platforms I’ve worked within before. During this US Open, I purposely developed a collection that could collide with the style needs of athletes and the culture around them. I’m working with players, their partners and people within that world, and I just placed a blue TOPSPIN suite on Taylor Townsend, who wore it both off court and on court. It’s new territory for them and for me, which makes it an invigorating time to launch.

EditorsLooking at the next few years, what kind of client or collaborator do you want to be building with, and what makes them the right ones?

Jules KimI’m always looking for clients and audiences who defy jewelry standards and want to express themselves in a unique way. I’m also increasingly interested in crossing into other industries; object design, AI, sport and whatever comes next.

EditorsYour silhouettes have been imitated widely. What did living through that teach you about authorship, and has it changed how you structure new work?

Jules KimIt’s a bitch when you’re copied. Anyone who says different is foolish. It’s not flattering, it’s stupid. Repetition and replication can teach newcomers the how, but leave out the process, research and thinking and the work becomes nothing but trash. Living through it has only made me more committed to the process behind what I make.

EditorsYou built a brand from nothing, which is deeply admirable. If you were building identity for someone else, a name, a company, an athlete, what do most people get wrong about it?

Jules KimI don’t believe anyone should produce anything else in this world without a real point of view. Otherwise it’s littering. No one needs any more jewelry. It’s not saving lives or curing cancer, but it can uplift your soul and hold memories that eventually become legacy. That is a meaningful endeavor, but you have to be specific enough to know what you’re trying to say.

EditorsWhere do you think the real innovation in this field comes from over the next five years?

Jules KimI love new shit. I adore innovation, and it’s always been an important pillar of my practice. I’m working more and more with AI, especially because my clients now have access to these tools too. The visual language is changing. A hand sketch doesn’t always communicate to a client the way it once did, so I have to grow at the rate my clients expect or fall behind. I future-proof my business as quickly and authentically as I can.

EditorsWhat do you want to have made by the end of this chapter that doesn’t exist yet?

Jules KimI’m working on building services for female athletes, celebrities and influencers that go beyond simply wearing jewelry. I want to help them contribute to culture through jewelry and build businesses and intellectual property that can sustain them as their influence grows.

EditorsYou’ve watched New York’s scene turn over several times. When you’re in Miami during Basel week, does it read to you as a market, a scene, or something else entirely?

Jules KimLike any destination platform, the opportunity is alluring for creatives and buyers alike. Scenes don’t necessarily frequent themselves locally anymore; we intersect at these larger cultural moments instead. I have friends who live in another borough that I somehow see more often in Paris than I do in New York. Basel operates a little like that: a collision point.

EditorsWho is making something right now, in any medium, that strikes you as genuinely new?

Jules KimBlack female tennis players are making something genuinely new in culture right now. They’re not artists in the traditional sense, but they are talent, and the reality of being a physically fit celebrity who competes at the highest level isn’t entirely unlike what culture increasingly asks of all of us: create, perform and platform yourself simultaneously. They’re becoming a singular kind of cultural talent because they’re breaking through enormous barriers while building individual identities on some of the world’s biggest sports platforms. Working with Taylor Townsend, Ayan Broomfield, Hailey Baptiste and others reinforces the importance of timing for me. Something is happening right now, and I want my work to be part of recording it.

EditorsIs there a piece of your own that never got the attention you thought it deserved?

Jules KimAnything I have in my safe hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. But jewelry has a lifetime to shine, and it’s my job to illuminate it.

Work by the subject of this piece
Work by the subject of this piece
Work by the subject of this piece
Work by the subject of this piece