Kendra Scott

Kendra Scott founded her jewelry brand in Austin, Texas in 2002 with $500 and a product design that placed colorful natural stones in elegant metal settings at a price point accessible to the broad market that the luxury jewelry brands above her price point excluded. The company has grown into one of the larger American fashion jewelry businesses, with retail stores across the country and a wholesale business that extends the reach beyond the company’s own stores. The Georgetown store at 1249 Wisconsin Avenue NW serves the neighborhood’s consumer base on the Wisconsin Avenue boutique corridor, in the stretch between N Street and Dumbarton that has developed as a concentration of jewelry and lifestyle retail.

The brand’s color philosophy is the distinguishing visual feature. Where most jewelry brands operate in limited palettes organized around precious metals and traditional stones, Kendra Scott uses drusy quartz, natural stones, and resin-set materials in a full color spectrum. The result is a jewelry range that can match or complement specific outfit colors in a way that conventional jewelry does not approach. The same necklace frame in a yellow drusy reads entirely differently than it does in a navy drusy, which is the principle that the Color Bar concept in each Kendra Scott store is designed to exploit.

The Color Bar is the in-store customization feature that allows a customer to select a jewelry frame and then choose from the color options available in the store to create a personalized piece on the spot. The customization happens in minutes rather than the weeks a custom jewelry order requires, and the price is within the standard Kendra Scott range rather than at the premium a fully custom piece commands. For the customer who has a specific color or outfit in mind and wants jewelry that matches precisely, the Color Bar provides the result immediately.

The price range is deliberately broad within the category of non-fine jewelry: earrings begin at $28, necklaces start around $50, and the more elaborate pieces in semi-precious stones reach several hundred dollars. This range, which covers the impulse purchase and the significant gift in the same store, is part of the brand’s market strategy: every customer, from the college student shopping for herself to the spouse looking for an anniversary piece, can find something at Kendra Scott.

The Wisconsin Avenue location serves both the Georgetown residential customer who visits regularly and the visitor population who discovers the brand at this Georgetown address. Kendra Scott stores are consistent in their physical design, with the Color Bar prominently featured and the jewelry displayed in a way that emphasizes the color variety.

Hours run Monday through Saturday from 10am to 7pm and Sunday from 11am to 6pm. Online ordering at kendrascott.com provides the full product range.