Saralee Smithwick’s design studio is a magnetic place tucked away within a larger office in New York’s midtown. A desk here is piled high with fraying books. Linen trays, running the length of a long counter overflow with exotic things like Sapphire beaded chokers, Carved Ruby Leaf dog collars, Coral camisoles, and Jade cuffs. Luscious blue suede "drop cloths" catch glittering diamonds and luminous pearls as they pause momentarily beside a colorful sketch destined for a jeweler’s bench. The designer speaks passionately about qualities like "luster" and "overtone" as the stones glow and beckon mysteriously.

Saralee, who grew up in North Carolina, has a connoisseur’s eye, a mastery earned through years of study and experience. She explains that her training took a classical route because she was intrigued with her grandparents’ jewelry and hollowware business, set in a townhouse in South Carolina. They had a trade significant enough to send them searching the world for special pieces, and the designer’s grandmother, who was a gemologist, would share some of the magical stories of their life’s work with Saralee.

After earning her own degree in gemology, Saralee was selected to grade diamonds in the laboratory of the Gemological Institute of American (GIA), and later did the same for a major diamond-cutting firm. An exciting opportunity at Harry Winston pulled her from the diamond microscope. Saralee opened Winston’s Petit Salon, formerly located in the brand new Trump Tower. A few years later she moved on to work for Barry Kieselstein-Cord, a designer with a high-end fashion line of jewelry, belts, and accessories.

The pivotal point of change in Saralee’s professional life occurred in the late 1980’s with the auction of the Duchess of Windsor’s jewel collection. Captivated by what she saw, she plunged into estate jewelry, her enthusiasm matched by the market’s insatiable craving for beautiful estate pieces. The designer confesses, "The trade jewelry shows had always left me so cold. Everything looking deliberately the same--booth after booth--and at that time what was hot was Mr. T.! Of course, that bold gold look now seems almost quaint."

Saralee still revels in the pursuit of interesting pieces, and a certain time-honored sensibility and charm is evident in the jewels she designs as well. What all her pieces share is a gentle but unmistakable twist—of color, proportion, or style—that makes each a singularity, whether it is an extravagant showstopper or a casual piece. And since her infatuation with stones is not only democratic but frequently playful (closer inspection of a necklace in black and white abalone with a carved coral clasp reveals diamond-set flip-flops!) the effect is subtle surprise within the beauty.

The Smithwick Dillon collection, both estate and new designs, can be found at Bergdorf Goodman and at select Neiman Marcus and Saks stores. Though Saralee is reticent about publicity, the name Smithwick Dillon will be known to anyone who reads the fashion magazines, especially Vogue and In Style. The designer’s pieces have also been featured in Elle, Departures , W Magazine, and on the cover of Glamour. Through the stores she frequently works on commissioned jewels for their clients.

"It’s important to remember that these pieces are meant to be signature pieces, not for me—although I love being the catalyst in the process—but for the individual who wears them out into the world."