Designer Lauren Turchin makes laid-back look luxe with her Miami Beach-based jewelry collection, Meridian Avenue.
Lauren Turchin with many of the pearl and braided necklaces ($48–$135) and bracelets ($32–$76) in her Meridian Avenue jewelry collection.
Although she hand-makes the majority of pieces for her spunky jewelry collection, Meridian Avenue, designer Lauren Turchin admits that her training has been a bit unorthodox. “Any new technique I need to learn, I always YouTube it,” she says, adding that sometimes she just improvises. “For my friendship bracelets, I didn’t know how to do a round braid, so I started doing a flat weave and just rolled with it.”
That unpretentious attitude is echoed in Turchin’s designs for Meridian Avenue: unfussy and casual, stylish but never too loud, ideal for a laid-back afternoon in the sunshine or brunch with friends. “It’s not jazzy; it’s just relaxed and has a cool vibe. It’s not too trendy; it’s wearable. You can throw it on and pair it with a bathing suit or a cover-up and it looks good,” she says of her collection of necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, available in Miami Beach at Frankie (1891 Purdy Ave., 786-479-4898), Love & Pieces (1680 Meridian Ave., #303, 786-571-6812), and Anatomy at 1220 (1220 20th St., 786-213-1220).
Turchin, 28, has been making necklaces and bracelets since she was a child, but didn’t think of it as a career until a few years ago while she was working at the men’s fashion jewelry company Miansai after graduating from the University of Florida. A fourth-generation Miamian, she’s close to her family and often makes pieces for Meridian Avenue at a room she’s turned into a de facto office at her parents’ home on—where else?—Meridian Avenue. (Turchin’s parents and grandmother are even sometimes enlisted to help knot delicate freshwater pearl bracelets.) Turchin insists that naming the collection after one of the city’s streets was more about a lack of ego than civic pride. “I was going over and over what I thought would be [a] good name,” she says. “This is the only thing that felt good to me. Every jewelry person likes to name their jewelry their first name and middle name; I just can’t get myself to do that.”
While the Miami lifestyle is the inspiration for much of Turchin’s current collection, it was her twin brother, Michael, a Los Angeles-based painter who married singer Lance Bass late last year, who may motivate its next generation. Both Lance and Michael wear champagne diamond wedding rings Lauren designed. “It definitely has inspired me to want to create fine jewelry,” Turchin says. “The whole process of creating a mold and choosing stones and metal types is so much fun, and to see the final product is the best feeling."
