In California’s Santa Ynez Valley, jewelry designer Irene Neuwirth finds a place for all her passions: fashion, horses, and nature.
Written and Photographed by Christopher Bagley
When people meet Irene Neuwirth—founder of the eponymous and fanatically collected jewelry brand—they’re often expecting a laid-back Californian, barefoot and perhaps just back from the beach. Raised in Los Angeles and known for her chic but unfussy aesthetic, the designer seems to embody a certain carefree, West Coast ease. But as Neuwirth will be the first to tell you, being chill isn’t really her thing. She’s afraid of the ocean, and even when she was a teenager growing up in Venice Beach, she was never the type to hop on a skateboard.
“People are always like, “She’s so low-key!’” Neuwirth says. “But I’m not. I’m controlling and obsessive and meticulous.” Mostly, those traits manifest in Neuwirth’s two biggest interests—jewelry and horses—and in both realms, her intensity and determination have served her well. On the jewelry front, she has been on a tear since the early 2000s, when, as a recent college graduate with no formal design training, she created 10 pieces and began calling—some might say hounding—the jewelry buyer at Barneys New York until she secured an in-person meeting. (“It’s very hard to tell me no,” she says.)
Barneys bought the collection and Neuwirth promptly gave herself a crash course in all aspects of the business, from wax carving and metalsmithing to P&L statements. Along the way, she refined her signature aesthetic with uniquely vivid, playful designs that showcase richly colored gemstones while leaving ample room for whimsy. Today Neuwirth has boutiques on Madison Avenue in New York and on Melrose Place in Los Angeles, and her pieces are a frequent presence on red carpets and in fashion spreads.
Her path to becoming a competitive equestrian has been a bit more circuitous. When Neuwirth first began competing in Los Angeles at age 13, progress came slowly; her parents were supportive but wary of the sport’s demands on both time and budget. “I showed a lot, but it was at a very low level,” she says. “I thought, one day when I make enough money, I’m going to buy myself a horse and get back into it in some way. Well, it took a while. I didn’t sit on a horse for 23 years.”
When she did get back in the saddle, she did so with a vengeance: She has won a string of blue ribbons at show-jumping championships in the amateur owner division and is a mainstay at Wellington International and other stops on the elite circuit.
On the day we met for lunch at The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Collection, in California’s Santa Ynez wine country, Neuwirth made her way through a cheeseburger and fries, texting with her team in Florida where her horses (six of them, at current count) were based for the winter season. “I mean, it’s insane,” she said. “I keep buying more horses, and I’m competing across the country from where I live. But I love it so much. It’s really fun to be competitive at something you’re good at.”
Although show jumping and jewelry making might seem to have little in common, Neuwirth finds the two pursuits overlap in surprising and meaningful ways. Like working with rare gemstones, cavorting with unpredictable thousand-pound animals requires an intuitive respect for nature. And when things go right, it can take on a meditative, even spiritual quality.
“Riding takes all of your concentration. When I ride, it’s the only thing I think about.”
Both disciplines also require a balance of control and surrender, along with a willingness to get one’s hands dirty. “Even though riding is a very expensive sport, you can’t just buy your way in,” she says. “You have to be really sensitive and attuned to the horse if you want to do well.”
Juggling the dual roles of full-time designer and competitive athlete brings its own set of challenges, yet Neuwirth has found that riding, for all the dedication and focus it requires, has also helped temper her workaholic tendencies. “It allowed me to put my obsessiveness somewhere else and be a little looser with my business,” she says. “I’m still incredibly involved in everything, but just, like, 10 percent looser, which is better for everyone.”
When she does manage to relax, Neuwirth often spends her downtime with her longtime boyfriend, film producer and director Phil Lord, and their three labradoodles. She recently celebrated her 50th birthday in Rome with 150 guests who flew in for the weekend. (Among them: Bruce Springsteen, whose wife, Patti Scialfa, is a longtime friend.)
Given all the bouncing around, it helps that Neuwirth’s house is in a quiet stretch of Malibu. She trains at a barn north of Los Angeles and feels fully at home in the rustic refinement of The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern. Originally built as a stagecoach stop in 1886, it is still dotted with antique horseshoes and other equestrian details. Neuwirth first visited the property with her family as a child and has returned to the coastal valley many times over the years—for riding, wine tasting, or simply taking in the rugged beauty of the surrounding hills and centuries-old live oaks.
As Neuwirth finishes her hamburger and shows me photos of her horses on her phone, it’s clear that if she didn’t have a thriving business to run, she’d be in the saddle as we speak. “After Florida, all six horses will be in New Jersey for the spring, and then they’ll go to the Hamptons for the summer,” she says. “I’ll meet them there. They have a very nice life.”
