Neil Lane, jeweler of the stars, subject to the first individual exhibition

Born in Brooklyn, the jeweler with Los Angeles headquarters will be the subject of his first individual exhibition at the Toledo Art Museum in Ohio from October 18 to January 18, 2026.

Neil Lane talks to Fashionnetwork.com about his career and his latest news.

Fashionnetwork.com: will present your new collaboration with Kay Jewelers in a few days. Next month, your first individual exhibition will be dedicated to you, accompanied by a book. Are you a man in a hurry?

Neil Lane: I love it. I am experiencing a King of the Renaissance at this time. I am involved in the diamond industry, in art, in design, in creation. I practice what is called the “Next” philosophy, which is to complete a project and start thinking about the next. All this gives me a lot of energy.

FNW: How did everything start?

NL: I am an aquarium, a very creative temperament and images. I created my own world. I was born in Brooklyn, and my mother always told me that when I was very young, I picked up marbles and broken glass pieces. I don't remember it, but I believe it! My mother was raised in the Lower East Side and we are going to visit on weekends, the neighborhood of Jewish immigrants where jewelry merchants, often in the back room, showed their creations. All this left me a brand. But what I remember most is the ring that my mother used, a pear -shaped ring. It is a model that I have kept and will be exhibited in the exhibition “Radiance and Reverie: Jewels of the Neil Lane collection” at the Toledo Art Museum, and inspired my first jewelry sketches for Kay Jewelers and the show “The Bachelor”.

The exhibition of the Toledo Art Museum will have its most beautiful vintage collections. When did you start collecting?

NL: My father collected antiques and kitsch porcelain figures that wouldn't let me touch. I think that influenced me. At first, I learned that things could have value. When I was a teenager in Brooklyn, I saw what people threw in the street. One day, I met this woman, Vivianne, who asked me to help her sell her collections in Flea Markets in Manhattan. That's where I met all the stars of the day: Andy Warhol, among others, Zsa Zsa Gabor, which would appear in a Rolls Royce, and even Louise Nevelson, wandering dressed in black with false eyelashes, looking for wood everywhere to use in his works of art. That's where I sharpened my eye and my knowledge of beautiful things.

A passion that then took you to Paris …

NL: I had always dreamed of Paris. I went there to study art, and although I was interested in museums and galleries, I was fascinated by the little jewels that I discovered in the Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré. It could be attached to the windows for hours, looking at those jewels like sweets. I remember spending all my travel budget during my first stay to buy a small “demon” brooch of the late nineteenth century, located with a pearl and diamonds.

What did you learn in France?

NL: So many things! I felt frustrated in the United States. Certainly there were boutiques in Madison Avenue, but I never feel comfortable entering. The Parisian atmosphere was very different. The mixture of history, art, architecture and craftsmanship made sense, resonated with me and put chicken skin. My passion became an almost visceral obsession. Flea markets in Chatou or Villette were full of incredible pieces and talent. Paris invented beauty, and inspired myself. And nobody judged me for being in jeans and shoes!

FNW: In the end, you decided to establish yourself in Los Angeles, in the mid -80s, and throw your career …

NL: I really had no idea what I was doing at that time. It was after visiting one of my friends that I decided to open a stand in an old bazaar in Beverly Boulevard (now closed), called Antiquarius. I arrived with my suitcase that contained some gold jewels of the late nineteenth century, Art Nouveau and Art Deco Creations. The people mostly looked for diamonds and glamor. But he had an advantage: nobody looked or offered jewels like me. French suit a craft, knowledge, an aesthetic, a story that did not exist here. My jewels were not only simple diamonds but real pieces of art.

FNW: Is that when all Hollywood started buying with you?

NL: All Hollywood stars appreciated my difference. I worked behind the jeans counter with a Gauloise cigarette. I remember this anecdote with Yoko Ono, who came to have a metal object, apparently worthless, duplicated in gold. At the same time, the wife of an important Hollywood producer was waiting for one of his diamonds to be restored. A few days later, when I delivered his diamond ring, he told me that the object that Yoko Ono was actually the selection used by John Lennon. She wanted a gold version to give her son for Valentine's Day.

FNW: And you became the official jewelers of the stars …

NL: In the early 1990s, “New Hollywood” came to look for me. Hollywood's stylists and costume designers were looking for new designs, unique and unusual pieces to highlight the new stars. People began to see the past under a new light. Suddenly, “Vintage” was no longer associated with grandmother's rags. I was lucky to be there at the right time. My Art Deco jewelry collection delighted everyone. I also started creating my own pieces, commitment and wedding rings for all kinds of celebrities, from Renee Zellweger to Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Hudson, Jessica Simpson and Ellen Degeneres. There was Armani for fashion and I for jewels.

FNW: His popularity with the general public accelerated after his association with the television program “The Bachelor”. How did that happen?

NL: At that time, my creations and collections were very popular in Hollywood. Anyone who married would come to see me. I was seeing all agents and publicists and I wasn't thinking anything else. But after accepting participating in the first television program, “Instyle Celebrity Wedding”, that appearance catapulted me in a different orbit and exposed me to new audiences. Later, an ABC producer called me to propose to be the official partner of his “The Bachelor” program. I hesitated, but finally accepted. Two months after the first episode was issued, it was overwhelmed with calls.

FNW: What has this experience brought you?

NL: I really didn't understand what was happening at that time. He lived in a bubble, collaborating only with the Hollywood elite. Finally I realized that in retrospect, Sary Hollywood, glamor with the public was a victory for me. Brooklyn's little boy was receiving public recognition. For almost 20 years, we have created The Rings for the Bachelor, and its spin-offs as “Bachelor in Paradise” and “The Golden Wedding” and the association with Kay Jewelers changed the face of the US bridal market.

FNW: Your first individual exhibition will take place in October at the Toledo Art Museum in Ohio. What does this represent for you?

NL: I am very excited but also very scared! The public will discover pieces that had never been seen before. I have a collection of several thousand pieces, including a large selection of Tiffany, as well as creations of almost unknown or forgotten designers. This exhibition will show 175 of them, including historical pieces of Cartier, Suzanne Belperron, Boucheron, Castellani, Paul Flato, Jean Fouquet, Raymond Templier and Van Cleef & Arpels. Many of these pieces come from world fairs or belonged to Hollywood icons such as Mae West or Joan Crawford. Each section of the exhibition will be enriched with additional objects from the Museum's glass collection and clothing and accessories of ASU FIDM, the Fashion Fashion Design and Merchandis Institute in Los Angeles to reflect the time when the jewels were made.

FNW: A book published with Rizzoli New York will also be released soon. What does it say?

NL: It tells the story of my trip in jewelry and will improve the understanding of readers in the history of American and Europen jewels, which illustrate the main artistic movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It combines big names and unknowns, focuses on the importance of design, manufacturing secrets and techniques.

FNW: Finally, the general public can find some of their vintage collections in the One One Eye store. What pieces will you show?

NL: We will offer a selection of high -design jewels of the art deco period or twenty years to the seventy retro.