"I try to engender a sense of mystery in my jewelry. For me it is a way to celebrate a woman on a spiritual level as well as the physical", says Lara of LA. She comes from a background of Russian jewelry makers, fashion designers and musicians, on both sides of her family. Knowledge, skill and folklore were handed down from her grandfather, who was a Russian master jeweler. As he often explained, "The sparkle of a piece of jewelry should please rather than strike. It should reflect the soul and elegance of a woman rather than her status, or how much the piece is worth. The value should be indeterminable, my girl. The beauty is what should be obvious."

    Lara of LA learned firsthand that the real value of jewelry is in its aesthetic quality. One can choose from and work within a massive range of precious and non-precious materials. Given those vast opportunities to create highly imaginative jewelry, she finds it difficult to explain why many of today's designers are lost in a sea of endless imitation of expensive "jewels." "Not all diamonds are a girl's best friend. Some are her worst enemies," she says.

    One-of-a kind pieces designed from the ground up are Lara's specialty. Oftentimes, parts of the finished piece have been salvaged from antiques languishing in the oblivion of a jewelry box, just waiting to be transformed into a fabulous new original. "My vision is to adhere to the original as much as possible, but with a different and complementary reinterpretation of these precious fragments."

    Lara also designs and assembles, by special order, very unique chatelaines. Each chatelaine created or assembled by Lara is a tribute the lost art - a fashion truly on the verge of coming into vogue all over again. View her current masterpieces in our chatelaine section. Because each chatelaine requires 2-6 months to complete, there is a waiting list, and a personal consultation is required to begin the commission.