PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
DAVID WEBB HAS BECOME one of the go-to houses for red carpet events, bejeweling celebrities in the company’s bold, colorful and sometimes whimsical jewelry. Film stars and musicians such as Natasha Lyonne, Helen Mirren, Doja Cat, Rose Byrne, Allison Janney and Sarah Paulson, to name just a few, wore David Webb pieces during events and premieres in 2025.
More recently Scarlett Johansson wore a spectacular piece at the New York City premiere of Eleanor The Great. She donned one of the new series of Totem pendants, which the designer David Webb first introduced in the 1970s. These Totems combine large-scale colored gems set into even larger stones in mixed abstract shapes, featuring various textures. They are a tour de force of imagination and the statement-making jewels for which Webb was known.
At the 2025 Academy of Music Gala, Kerry Washington, Adrien Brody and Lindsey Vonn all were wearing a variety of David Webb jewels. With hair pulled back, Washington bedazzled in multiple cuts and shapes of gemstone earrings, which were the perfect complement to her strapless Giorgio Armani gown. The Olympic skier and author Vonn wore one of the iconic necklaces from David Webb — a mix of different juicy gems in cuts, colors and shapes worn backwards on her neck. And Adrien Brody, who rocks the huge and often lyrical man brooch, wore one of Webb’s most popular motifs from the 1970s — the zebra in in black and white enamel and vivid stones — on his lapel.
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PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
Embed from Getty Images
Although we often see David Webb archival pieces strut out on the red carpet, all of these styles have been reimagined to reflect the designer/s original aesthetic while appealing to a new generation of customers.
A little history of David Webb: His jewels spanned several decades of the 20th century. Growing up in North Carolina, he apprenticed at his uncle’s silversmith shop, moved to New York at the age of 17 and got a job repairing jewelry in Greenwich Village. In 1948, after learning as much as he could as a bench jeweler, he founded the company that bears his name and opened a shop on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue. He went on to help define the look of two decades in American cultural history. He was 37 years old when Jackie Kennedy asked him to create the White House “Gifts of State” by submitting seven designs using minerals native to the United States. All seven designs were accepted, and many more followed. Webb also designed jewelry for the melodramas of the early sixties: Susan Hayward in Backstreet, Lana Turner in Portrait in Black (and later Madame X), and Doris Day in Midnight Lace. Diana Vreeland, The Duchess of Windsor, Jackie Kennedy, and a host of socialites and film stars also wore his jewelry. His creativity flourished throughout the late ‘60s and ‘70s when he experimented with scale, proportion, different gemstones and a mix of ancient and animal motifs. Sadly David Webb passed away at the early age of 50, but his legacy lives on.
In 2010, Mark Emanuel and Robert Sadian purchased the company in order to continue the David Webb heritage and bring the beauty and power of the designs to a modern-day customer. The business was then purchased in 2025 by Middle West Partners, who is committed to leading the House forward with Levi Higgs, Head of Archives and Brand Heritage.
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