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Reed Krakoff has had many design jobs, working for brands including Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Coach and Tiffany Co. The hardest part, he’s found throughout his career, is putting out that first collection.
“The first one is the hard one,” he says, speaking over Zoom from Paris. “You tell people it has to be updated, it has to be modern, it has to be this or that. It’s a lot of words until you actually put something on the table and people say, ‘I get it,’ ‘I want it’ — or both.”
His most recent first collection was for John Hardy, a jewellery brand founded in Bali celebrating its 50th anniversary this August that Krakoff says had become “a bit dusty” by the time he joined as creative director in 2023. While the craftsmanship and quality was rock solid — its precious metals are hand carved and woven as they have been since its founding in 1975 — the designs needed refinement and a more modern sensibility.
Since then, it’s gotten easier. The John Hardy refresh has so far involved putting new spins on classic pieces and the introduction of materials like gold, rose gold and diamond pavé to what was previously a primarily matte sterling silver brand. Krakoff cut the number of pieces in the catalogue — around 2,000 — by half, and replaced around 80 per cent of it with fresh designs. Sales have surpassed $100 million and grown 20 per cent in the past year, with sales of gold and men’s pieces doubling.
Krakoff said he wasn’t that familiar with the brand before he joined, but was well versed in fine jewellery from his time at Tiffany. He got involved through a close friend Michael Chu, global co-CEO of L Catterton, which acquired John Hardy in 2014. Krakoff joined L Catterton as a strategic advisor and creative chair of John Hardy. “I think I’m probably the first creative to work in a private equity space, because it’s not necessarily an easy fit,” Krakoff says.
As is his process with every creative director role, he draws on the archives to inform the future. Today, John Hardy is launching a reissue of the Dot collection, a brand classic featuring bracelet and necklace cords dotted with hand-placed sterling silver rondels that was retired in 2015. The 2025 iteration includes three new pieces in addition to five archival relaunches, ranging from $450 to $4,500.
Rather than stick to sketching and product drops, Krakoff has taken a 360-degree approach to his role, as is now typical of the modern creative director — working across marketing, retail strategy and even supply chain. Here, Krakoff discusses how he takes on new challenges, how the star designer role has begun to outshine brands and what’s next at John Hardy.
Vogue: What was your first point of business when you got to John Hardy? What needed to be done from a design perspective?
Any really successful brand has something that’s iconic, that people can recognise. Like the handbag business — most brands have two bags that they’re known for. It changes occasionally, but basically it’s two to three bags that drive the brand essence and really position you in that market. In jewellery it’s the same. And I kind of felt like at Hardy, it was a lot of nice jewellery, but nothing that you could put your finger on that felt relevant to what was happening in the market today.
The very first collection was Spear, and it was very deliberate and prescriptive. I knew there needed to be something that was recognisable but not branded. It needed to be more luxe, it needed to be sexier and to have a bit of an edge to it. If I had explained that to someone, they probably wouldn’t think it was the right fit. But the moment we made the first one, everyone wanted it and it’s been the most productive collection so far.
Vogue: How much do you think about what’s happening in the broader industry when you design? Do you let competitors and trends influence your creative process?
I don’t know how I could avoid it. Knowing what’s around, what’s doing well, what’s not doing well, new retail concepts, new collections. It’s an occupational hazard, being around it so much. But I kind of keep it in the back of my mind. It’s important to be conscious, but it’s also important to realise that there is no easy answer. Rose gold is trending, why not add some rose gold? Anything works if it rings true for the brand, but things that are working in the market can be quite unsuccessful if they don’t resonate with your customer.
I always try to find the advantage that my brand has over others. Every brand has something that allows that brand to succeed and to thrive. And you have to tease that out.
Vogue: Leading a legacy brand into a new era is a lot of pressure on designers. Have you sought out these challenges in your career? Do you ever get bored once it feels like the job is complete? How do you know when to move on?
I do believe that every designer has a shelf life within a brand, especially if it’s something that takes a lot of creativity, a lot of thought, a lot of evolving a brand. There’s only so many times one designer can do that before fatigue sets in. I was at Coach for 15 years. I was at Tiffany for about six. I had my own brand for about six. One of the things that makes it exciting is that I’m involved in everything from being on the board, to the stores, to the marketing, to the product, to events. It never gets boring. There’s always something wrong somewhere.
Vogue: The idea that designers also have their hands in store design, marketing, events — that’s a relatively newer invention spun into the role of creative director. How has that changed the nature of the job?
To me, Tom Ford going to Gucci was the beginning; and now, there are almost none that don’t just have a hand in it, but oversee store design, marketing, e-commerce — all that stuff. And for me, it makes my work much more effective, because I know what I’m trying to solve for. Everything works better. And you can only do that when there’s one point of view. We all work together, no one owns the work. That’s a much, much more successful and convincing way to evolve a brand because otherwise none of the pieces connect — the product to the marketing to the store.
Because people understand what we’re trying to accomplish, that’s the only way you could really be super productive. We basically replatformed the site, created new packaging, new branding, a new store design, mostly almost all new assortments and a new brand identity. And it all happened in a year and a half. It happens much more quickly and cohesively, and a more convincing story comes out of it.
Vogue: That raises a question I had around the time that’s needed for a creative reset, thinking about all the different designer debuts coming up this year. How much time should a creative director get to really prove themselves?
That’s a forever conversation. But it goes back to a knowledge of and dedication to learning the business. At some point you have to pay the man, and the man is the person looking at the numbers. If you just go in and design beautiful collections, you probably won’t be there very long, even if the editors love it. I think a lot of designers don’t get the time or the guidance from the business side that says: ‘Look, I understand where you’re going, but we have shareholders. We’re a public company. You’re not going to be here and maybe the CEO’s not going to be here if you don’t solve some problems quickly.’ It gives designers a priority, and it might sound a bit mundane but it’s an assessment.
Vogue: It almost sounds impossible, though, for a designer to come in and very quickly right size a business that for many different reasons might be struggling.
Especially if you don’t have visibility or clarity on what’s happening in the business. For me, I know the numbers, I know the margins, I understand inventory, and then I create space for myself to figure things out. You don’t put your head in the sand. There are some designers — I’m not one of them — that can just drop into a brand and create an incredible collection and all of a sudden no one can remember what the brand was before. But that’s pretty hard these days. And then what happens after that chapter, because who is the brand now, separate from that designer?
Vogue: You mentioned you’re a creative operating in the private equity space, which is very well known for being all about the bottom line. Is that difficult in fashion?
It’s not for everyone. It’s survival for me. It’s what I need to be successful. I can speak the language, I’ve dealt with venture capitalists, I owned a brand. I’ve worked for public companies for 25 years now. So it’s kind of the only way I know how to do things. I know that having a great bag or shoe, or a piece of jewellery or something is great, but without the business being successful in all metrics, I don’t get any credit. I don’t give myself any credit unless we’re doing well. It’s not like, ‘Oh, the customer didn’t get it.’ There’s nothing dumber that I could say than that if it doesn’t sell.
Vogue: Does that require taking some of the ego out of the design process?
Honestly, I don’t think about it. I know it’s not productive. Because being such an insider in the design world, often you like the most esoteric things and I’m always pushing the envelope. That’s 100 per cent part of the job, but your own aesthetic, it doesn’t come into play — even with your own brand. I learnt that the hard way. For me personally, I never felt like it was that different with my own brand. It still was: this is the brand, these are the customers, this is the opportunity, these are the competitors, these are the kinds of things that work in that space. I actually found it no more freeing than working for other brands. Your name is on the door, but it’s still a business to everyone else.
Vogue: With all of this in mind, where can you take John Hardy from here?
I think the next phase is really creating more of a world. So maybe it’s expanding into other categories. There’s a lot of brands that have launched home collections or restaurants and cafés. Hardy has an amazing resort in Southeast Asia where the factory is and the workshop is, it feels like it makes sense because it’s a real place. Most brands, I don’t think of a place. I think of a brand. I think of a product, I think of a colour, I think of an aesthetic — but I don’t think of a place, and I think that gives the brand a big advantage. I could see doing much more in that space, much more in the space of home and fragrance, accessories, gifts. I’ve done a lot of design work on it already, and we’re starting to play with it. But I’ve made the mistake in the past of introducing those things too soon. And you really have to take care of what’s going to keep you in the building first before you do these more tertiary things that are only appropriate after you’ve built the foundation.
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