I've posted so many of Alex Woo's pieces I know y'all are familiar with her, and I was shocked and saddened to read this headline. The industry lost one of our new icons in the prime of her life. RIP Alex.
Jewelry Loses Its Kindest Voice, Alex Woo
Designer Alex Woo, who made a name for herself with her sculptural charms and grew her business by always staying a step ahead, died of cancer March 30. She was 47.
"New York—When interacting with Alex Woo, her kindness and humility might make one temporarily forget her business acumen or her contribution to shaping the independent jewelry design landscape.
But Alex Woo was both things: warmhearted and a professional powerhouse.
The designer died of cancer on March 30 at her home in New York City. She was 47.
Born Jan. 13, 1974, Woo was raised in New York City and chose jewelry as a career because of family ties—her father was also a jeweler.
With a career spanning more than two decades, Woo was a trailblazer in the independently branded fine jewelry arena, specializing in everyday styles that were both wearable and sentimental.
She leaned into, and is best known for, concepts that are more relevant than ever—personalization and charms.
Since Woo launched the company, her jewelry has been stocked in hundreds of boutiques and department stores, becoming a household name among jewelry and accessory fans.
Woo’s charms are tokens of people and things her clients hold most dear: an initial for a loved one, a spiritual symbol for one’s faith, a palm tree to commemorate a favorite location, or a specific dog breed for one’s pet.
Alex Woo, far right, with National Jeweler Senior Editor Ashley Davis (far left) and PR and brand strategist Jen Cullen Williams at the 2020 Gem Awards in New York. (Photo credit: BFA.com/Benjamin Lozovsky)
Representing love, luck, or faith, Woo’s charms are timeless but evolve to stay on-trend, today dangling from huggie hoop earrings or easily lending themselves to a layered look.
Woo’s brand has proved so popular that she’s become known for her plethora of partnerships, joining forces with powerhouses like Disney for charms representing popular cartoon characters, or Major League Baseball on logo jewelry representing each team.
One of the brand’s most recent partnerships was with candymaker Sugarfina.
Through all of her successful endeavors, Woo always showed up for causes that mattered to her too.
She once co-designed a pendant with breast cancer survivor and actress Christina Applegate to benefit the nonprofit foundation Applegate founded to educate women about the disease.
More recently, she launched a category of charms called “Little Activist,” with jewels raising awareness or benefitting different causes.
A previous bee charm benefited honeybee research, for example. A panda pendant, made in collaboration with a Disney documentary, donated a portion of proceeds to the World Wildlife Fund.
Currently, three charms on the Alex Woo website represent causes like global warming, with one, the “Little Activist Love Monkey,” made in collaboration with Disney, benefiting Conservation International.
This time last year, Woo launched a collection of empowering message charms, called “Mini X Words,” featuring charms and stud earrings spelling, “Feminist,” “Love,” “Survivor,” “Wifey,” “Sister,” “Mama,” “Nana,” “Namaste,” “Blessed,” and “Boss.”
Styles from Alex Woo’s empowering “Mini X Words” collection, launched in March 2020 in honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day
Woo told National Jeweler at the time that the collection embodied self-love and female empowerment.
The designer was passionate about using her charms to spread a positive message.
She said, “As a small women-owned and -run company, I think it’s so important to support other women and each other.”
“When I was a teenager, I lost my mom to cancer, and it really put life into perspective for me. Since then, I’ve always tried to enjoy life to its fullest, and I am very appreciative of all the blessings that I have.”
At the time, Woo noted that the “Blessed” charm was resonating the most with her.
In a previously unpublished quote she said, “It’s very meaningful to me as I am extremely grateful of my life, my family, and friends. I also feel so blessed to be doing something that I love every day and working with wonderful and talented people all the time. I know it’s a true blessing and I am very lucky.”
In the portion of the quote that was published in the article, she continued, “When I was a teenager, I lost my mom to cancer, and it really put life into perspective for me. Since then, I’ve always tried to enjoy life to its fullest, and I am very appreciative of all the blessings that I have.”
Alex was such a well-known icon in the industry, and was so respected and loved by all who knew her that I wanted to add some of their comments to this thread about her untimely demise. We should all be so blessed as to receive such well-deserved accolades from our peers after we're gone.
Looking Back on the Legacy of Alex Woo
Alex Woo, an innovative jewelry designer and savvy businesswoman, died of cancer late last month. She was just 47 years old.
"I was off work on Friday, April 2 and disconnected for the day, so I didn’t get the news until late that evening, when a colleague texted me to say her heart was broken over the news about Alex Woo.
Mine is too.
The talented designer and savvy businesswoman, 47, died of cancer March 30 at her home in New York City.
A private memorial service was held April 2—the same day her company announced their founder’s passing via social media—at the beautiful Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, Florida.
Alex was awesome.
She was, good friend Lynette Brubaker remembered with me last week, the perfect “left brain-right brain,” a rare find in the field of jewelry design, or any field really—someone who can be creative but also balance the books.
Alex’s sculptural, three-dimensional charms have a distinctive look and feel, fulfilling a tenet of good design continually preached by another woman we lost too soon, Cindy Edelstein.
Alex certainly did not invent initial jewelry, but she carved her own place in the field, particularly with the launch of her iconic, trademarked “Little Icons” collection.
“Her take on personalization,” Lynette said, “was very new.”
“She made charms sophisticated, in my opinion. This was not your mother’s charm necklace or charm bracelet.”
“Alex Woo was one of the smartest people I knew in the industry. Over the years, she worked strategically to take her company to another level. Every major department store and luxury retailer carried Alex Woo. Her design aesthetic was strong and she created a niche in the market … She [also] was a kind soul who was always willing to help with a smile. The industry has experienced a huge loss, but her work will always live on through her classic designs.” — Jay Lakhani, Deepa Gurnani
While the sculptural look of the charms set them apart, it was the savvy placements engineered by Alex that helped put them on the map, observed Lynette, who was publisher of InStyle magazine when the pair first met in the early aughts.
Alex Woo jewelry was all over the uber-popular series “Gossip Girl,” which aired on the CW from 2007 to 2012 (“Will Gossip Girl fuel a must-have necklace craze?” this very publication asked back in 2010), and on another CW show, “The Carrie Diaries.”
Airing for two seasons in 2013 and 2014, the latter followed the misadventures of a young Carrie Bradshaw, played by AnnaSophia Robb. Having the lead actress wear an Alex Woo “C” was a smart way to reach a younger audience, especially given the trend-setting precedent set by “Diaries” adult forerunner, “Sex and the City.”
Then there were the collaborations.
Alex was onto the idea of seeking out partners to help expand her reach before “collabs” became ubiquitous, before every other collection was “Somebody x Somebody.”
Knowing there were female sports fans out there who were looking for ways to show support for their favorite team, she partnered with Major League Baseball to design charms for all 30 teams.
She made charms for numerous Disney movies, and when it came time to soften up her line with the addition of the cursive “Autograph” collection, she teamed up with high-end nail polish brand Smith & Cult.
And it was another collaboration that brought me to Alex’s New York City showroom in June 2019, the last time I sat down for an extended interview with her.
Alex Woo (fourth from left) is pictured among friends at the 2019 Gem Awards. JA’s Amanda Gizzi remembered of Woo: “I knew I would see her at the industry’s events. She went to support the events and to connect with her friends. For GEM Awards, I knew, she was there to support me; that’s who she was. The industry lost one of our brightest souls and talents. I will miss her dearly.” (Photo credit: Bart Gorin)
National Jeweler Associate Editor Lenore Fedow and I went together, heading uptown ostensibly to spend an hour or so with Alex talking about her deal with Sugarfina.
We ended up staying most of the day because I just enjoyed chatting with Alex, which doesn’t happen every time I do an interview, trust me.
She was smart and engaging, and I felt like I left her studio with a refreshed perspective on the industry, and several story ideas.
We talked about everything—retail distribution, trade shows, the intrinsic value of jewelry, how she picked her collaboration partners.
She looked for brands with a solid base of sophisticated clients who appreciate quality (all of Alex’s jewelry was top-notch, and all of it was made in New York City).
She also said she gravitated toward women-owned, or co-owned, brands because she liked working with other female entrepreneurs.
“It’s heartwarming,” Alex told me, “to see how much we can, and want, to help each other.”
She cut a path for other female business owners and, as Greenwich St. Jewelers co-owner Jennifer Gandia noted in her touching tribute to Alex shared on Facebook, for BIPOC designers and entrepreneurs as well.
“[Alex] was a wonderful colleague and friend. We are both mothers of boys and shared stories about our sons and juggling work/home life. She was very busy, but often reached out to invite me to dinner or a coffee. I will remember her warm smile, her enthusiasm for projects such as Disney or the MLB items and, importantly, her commitment to charity. I will miss Alex dearly.”— Karen Giberson, Accessories Council
The last time I saw Alex was at the 2020 Gem Awards, which took place in January of last year. It was the next-to-last industry event I attended before the shutdown.
When I think of Alex being gone, the same few thoughts cycle through my mind.
