He’s Just Wild About Harry (Winston)
JAMES KERSEY, 46, HAS BEEN SELLING JEWELRY FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS. HE’S SPENT THE LAST seven at Harry Winston on Rodeo Drive. The premier jeweler furnishes millions of dollars’ worth of gems to award-going starlets every year, and this month’s Oscar ceremonies should be no exception. “It’s glamorous,” he admits. “But it’s just a job. At night I go home and eat frozen pizza just like everyone else.” Recently we spent a Tuesday with the Virginia native, who wears very little jewelry himself: a simple gold signet ring his aunt gave him in the seventh grade, and a Harry Winston watch, “a little present to myself.”
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9:15: Kersey arrives at work and puts on a pot of coffee.
11:30: No customers yet. He opens a UPS package, a gift of French peanut butter truffles from a client in Calabasas.
11:44: There’s a phone call from the Harry Winston New York store. “I’m way ahead of last year and last year was quite good,” he tells the caller. “I just had $88,000 [in sales] over the phone a few minutes ago.”
12:05: A stylist for one of the “Friends” actresses calls. “And did she have a good time last night?” Kersey inquires. “Did she look gorgeous? How bad can Ralph Lauren and Harry Winston be? It worked for Gwyneth!”
12:10: A Brinks truck arrives with a package of jewelry from New York. Kersey unpacks it in the back office. Among the contents is a 50-carat diamond necklace valued at $800,000. In the front of the store, a young movie producer blabs into his cell phone: “I screwed up. I hope you had a great birthday. I’ll make it up to you when you come to L.A. with a shopping excursion.” After he hangs up, he announces to no one in particular: “Oh, this one’s going to be brutal to get out of!”
12:15: A gangly thirtysomething informs Kersey that he is looking for an engagement ring. “Personally, I like princess cut,” he says. “But you’re not going to be wearing it,” Kersey replies.
It turns out that the customer is looking for “something between .7 and 1 carat” (small by Harry Winston standards). Kersey suggests he visit Tiffany instead.
12:40: Phone call. “How’s your fabulous Jaguar?” Kersey asks. “Of course you love it. You have the best-looking car in Los Angeles! [He pauses.]
“First of all, let me see if it’s still available. That was the round cabochon emerald with diamonds on the side? Yes! You’re very sly. You’re nothing if not amusing, Mr. S. I promise I’ll get the ring at the best possible price.”
After hanging up, Kersey mentions that Mr. S. first came into the store looking for “casual emeralds.”
12:45: Kersey calls New York to find out if they still have the ring desired by Mr. S. They do. It’s just under $25,000. He asks New York to send it.
12:50: “I’m a great admirer of your wife,” Kersey tells the husband of the “Friends” star as he drops in to return the jewelry she borrowed: $25,000 diamond earrings and a $375,000 diamond necklace.
2:30: “She went from pager to cell phone like that,” says the wife of an industry exec who pops in just to say hi. “What more could an 11-year-old want?” Kersey responds.
3:30: Kersey and the store manager persuade Barbara Lazaroff, wife of Wolfgang Puck, to change into her slinky party dress before she tries on jewels she’s borrowing for an event. They whisk her into the bathroom and promptly drape her in diamonds. “The only thing is,” Lazaroff says, “people are going to wonder, how many pizzas did they have to sell?”
4:15: A middle-aged couple deliberate between three pieces and Kersey offers to clean the woman’s five-carat diamond ring while she waits.
4:17: The couple decide on a strand of gold pearls for her. The price? About $270,000.
4:59: The store is about to close. In good spirits after a successful day, Kersey quietly sings a few lines of the upbeat Yiddish classic, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon.”
