Profile

Unless you make an appointment to visit her boutique in Taiwan, Anna Hu’s jewelry is available only in the grand concourse of the Plaza Hotel Retail Collection. The open, silver-hued space won the grand prize in the 2009 Area for Retail Environments Architecture Awards. The mall-like setting is an unusual atmosphere for the designer, an accomplished cellist and art historian with a refined, classical sensibility. Her pieces are individually handcrafted, set with diamonds, pearls, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies as large as coins. The pieces range from simple diamond-and-emerald stud earrings to a startlingly realistic gold-tarantula brooch with a pearl egg sac. — Frankie Thomas