GOLD STANDARD
CADAR Shines at The Vault Nantucket
When Katherine Jetter met Michal Kadar at the Couture Jewelry trade show in Las Vegas, she was blinded by Kadar’s three tiers of gold feather earrings. Jetter, a jewelry designer who also carries other designers’ jewelry at The Vault Nantucket, ran to Kadar’s booth to introduce herself. The rest was history. This year, The Vault is celebrating 10 years, and is carrying Michal Kadar’s jewelry, called CADAR. “Michal’s jewelry has always had two key traits: movement and a level of gold polish that is exceptional and exceeds the standard seen inmost gold collections,” Jetter said. N Magazine caught up with Michal Kadar to discuss her collection.
How did CADAR get its start?
Kadar: CADAR really began as something deeply personal. It was born from a need to create things that would last. I had spent years in fashion, and I loved it, but fashion moves so fast. I wanted to create something more permanent and meaningful. The name CADAR comes from my own name, Kadar. My heritage, my roots, and my story—told through gold.
What drew you to jewelry?
Kadar: Jewelry never leaves you. It becomes part of who you are. It holds memory, it tells a story, it lives on your skin and moves with you every day. I wore my engagement ring every single day and one morning I looked at it and thought: how can I make this feel new again? That question became the TU Ring, a solitaire with an interchangeable jacket. That moment of wanting to transform something familiar into something surprising—that is really the essence of how I think about jewelry. It is not a static object. It is a living thing.
Is there a stylistic ethos that guides your brand?
Kadar: Everything I create is always based on a story. My roots and my culture are in almost every piece. My personal style is a melting pot of vintage, bohemian, the Middle East and East Asia. But above everything, I want the jewelry to be timeless. That is why I work only in yellow gold and diamonds. Certain colors belong to seasons and trends, and I don’t want my pieces to belong to a moment. I want a woman to wear something I designed today and feel the same magic in it 20 years from now. The idea that jewelry is something you covet, something that fulfills a deeper desire, guides every decision I make.
How do you capture movement and emotion in your jewelry?
Kadar: I think about jewelry the way a fashion designer thinks about fabric. Gold is my textile. I study how a piece will drape on the body, how it moves when a woman walks, how it catches the light at different angles. The Feather earrings, for example, took us a full year just to develop the prototype in New York before we even sent it to our artisans in Italy. Another six months before we got the movement exactly right. When I see a piece of jewelry move flawlessly, I am completely mesmerized by it. That is what I am chasing every time. I want the piece to feel like it was always part of you, like a second skin.
Latest Stories
