COUTURE awards honor legacy, community and symbolic jewelry design

A ring inspired by İznik tiles and a second straight win for Hiba Husayni’s Zahn-Z underscored a clear message on the COUTURE show floor: heritage is still winning, but so is the community that protects it.

The annual COUTURE Design Awards were held Saturday evening, May 31, 2026, at the Encore Theater in Las Vegas, where awards were handed out in 12 judged categories, plus Editor’s Choice and People’s Choice honors. COUTURE limits entry to participating designers and brands, with each submitting just one piece in one primary category, and every entry displayed in a museum-quality installation in the Design Awards hallway. That structure gives the competition a curator’s feel rather than a trade-show free-for-all, and it helps explain why the winners travel quickly through the industry.

COUTURE Director Gannon Brousseau used the night to link design excellence with the people who have shaped the show’s identity. The ceremony opened with the inaugural Jan Mohr Award for Excellence, presented to Mildred Marcano, director of sales and marketing at Reinhold Jewelers. The program also paid tribute to Jan Mohr, COUTURE’s longtime retailer liaison, who served the show for 26 years before retiring in June 2025 and died on December 25, 2025, at age 71 after being diagnosed with glioblastoma. Mohr’s daughter, Madelyn Fischer, stepped into her role in the presentation, a detail that gave the evening a generational echo.

Later, Beth Anne Bonanno of The Gems Project received the Cindy Edelstein Award, named for the jewelry-industry advocate who co-founded Jeweler’s Resource Bureau in 1991 and was widely remembered as a champion of designers. The award materials describe it as a commemoration of Edelstein’s life and spirit, and the choice of Bonanno kept the focus on the people who build support systems around independent design, not just the designers themselves.

Among the standout pieces, Itä won Best in Below $10,000 Retail for its Yarí İznik Whirl ring, a latest version of the brand’s Yarí Whirl design with enamel inspired by İznik, the historic Turkish city known for tile-making. The piece fit a broader appetite for symbolism grounded in craft, not sentiment alone. Zahn-Z won Best in Diamonds Below $40,000 Retail for its Big Zaha Art Deco ring, giving Hiba Husayni a second consecutive Couture Design Award and showing that strong geometry and clear period references still command attention.

Pen Mané took two honors, including Best in Innovative and Editor’s Choice, while Uniform Object won Best in Bridal. COUTURE describes its Design Atelier as a three-year runway for up-and-coming brands before they move into salons or villas, and this year’s winners made that pipeline look especially important. At a moment when jewelry buyers want pieces with a point of view, the awards favored designs that carry history, memory and maker identity in the same setting.