Kathy Hilton And Anna Zuckerman Discuss Their New Jewelry Collection

Being a part of the Hilton Hotels family dynasty and having started several businesses herself, Kathy Hilton is no stranger to hard work, while still looking fabulous throughout the process. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reality star and mother of Paris Hilton & Nicky Rothschild has now taken on her latest creative venture in the form of a new Kathy Hilton x Anna Zuckerman summer jewelry collection.

Sitting down with the two business leaders, I first referenced Zuckerman’s jewelry website, where it mentions Hilton’s “impeccable taste” and Zuckerman’s eye for “exquisite jewelry.” So, what is it about Hilton’s taste that feels unique and refined today, and has that taste evolved at all over the years?

Hilton said, “I would say yes. I get inspired because I travel a lot. I went to the opening of Saks Fifth Avenue and I had really worn out jeans. I had a T-shirt that Paris had designed in the 90s and I had one of Nicky’s that she had designed, like a sweatshirt – and I had on layers of the [Kathy Hilton x Anna Zuckerman]

jewelry. No one had ever seen that before. Well, the lady from Women’s Wear Daily stopped me on the stairs. She goes, ‘Can I take a picture of this?’ – because it was obvious that it wasn’t real. When you wear it that way, it would be like a hundred million dollars. So, I was trying to play it as just fun and whimsical and part of fashion – and everyone loved it.”

Having launched her Anna Zuckerman Jewelry line “right smack in the middle of the [Covid-19] pandemic,” I was curious how Zuckerman would describe her own journey around this luxury business, and if it has evolved at all within recent years.

Zuckerman said, “So much so. For me, I’ve been a fine jewelry designer all my life and I was missing that ‘wow’ factor because I was always on some limited budget design for people. With fine jewelry, if you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, you can create something – but then you’re limited to a person who just wants something everyday and fun. There’s not that much choice out there in the fine jewelry world. When the pandemic happened, I started thinking we are all kind of in this together and we just need a little bit of light in our lives. How can I brighten people’s lives, and how can I inspire women? We really feel more empowered when we have some bling on. There’s just something about the sparkle that all women love. It makes us feel good. So, I decided that I’m going to create pieces that are so stunning, but I’m going to do it in demi-precious metals and created gemstones. I had created four or five pieces and I showed them to buyers, and they’re like, ‘This is incredible. Can you make more?’ So, we established this business. I literally left my fine jewelry, everything I worked for, and I switched it over to demi-fine fashion within the next three months. I realized that this jewelry makes people happy, that everybody wanted it, but it’s like nobody would wear a lot of accessories because of its price ticket. Now, when you lower the price ticket, by creating something that is so magnificent using lab-created stones and semi-precious materials, it’s a game changer.”

As for how these collaborations initially came about between these ladies, Zuckerman said, “All of a sudden, I get a phone call from Kathy, who says, ‘What is this jewelry all about? I want to try a pair of earrings. I love it.’ So, the rest was history.”

With pieces in the new summer collection inspired from Hilton’s own jewelry box, she added about her early thoughts on Zuckerman’s designs, “I had been looking at it and I had heard about it and I was blown away. There’s several companies out there and they all have really pretty things, but this just heals me.”

Sharing with this business duo that Forbes often gravitates towards entrepreneurs – something that both Hilton and Zuckerman identify as themselves. So, what do they feel makes an effective entrepreneur in 2025? What are the traits and actions that make a great entrepreneur?

Hilton said, “You have to really learn. You have to be involved and really study it. You can start something up and be successful, or you can be one of these people that just throws spaghetti on the wall. So, whatever I’m involved in, starting back with my store – I had for 10 years – I would have had it longer, but we moved to the east coast. I learned very quickly that you cannot have a retail store, unless you’re there everyday.”

Zuckerman said, “I have a similar story. My first husband – I’m happily in love and re-married now, but my first husband passed away from cancer in 2010. I was 33 years old with two small children and with so many bills – nobody knew this was coming. I decided to not fall victim of depression and put whatever was happening into something I love most. I started making this jewelry. Back then, it was all fine jewelry, but it led me to this demi-fine and it’s the passion. It’s something that I loved all my life, that drove me to be successful. Yes, you can be a jewelry designer, but then you lunch with your girlfriends in the Hamptons? I don’t have time for that. I work 24 hours a day.”

She added: “I remember two years ago, I was thinking – How can I make this company grow? I had my husband connect with one of the investors. The investor looked at my business and he said, ‘You are in fashion jewelry. Just so you know, 95% of Shopify creators and designers fail. Only 5% survive. I am absolutely not interested in investing with you.’ I said, ‘Thank you so much. These are the greatest words I have heard this year, because I’m going to prove to you that I’m going to be successful because I’m extremely stubborn.’ It motivates you. From that day, I have not stopped working. I work seven days a week. I answer calls all the time. Fast forward two years later, the same investor is calling me to see if he can invest. I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ That feels so good. To me, I feel like I’m an inspiration to other women. My 19-year-old daughter is home from school now. She’s working for me and I call her my baby CEO. My son who’s 17, he’s going to Germany this summer to study mechanical engineering, but right before he leaves, he’s helping me with coding and the website. It’s such a great business and I feel like I’m showing these kids the ropes. At the end of the day, are we going to make millions? We probably will, but there’s so much more than that. The fact that we can show to others and we inspire them, it’s a great feeling.”

Hilton said, “Let me say, with any business, I’m not a professional artist. I will kind of draw out to Anna what my feeling is and she’ll finish it, but I’ll send a sample of something and we’ll go back-and-forth – like maybe we’re going to tweak the sides of this. Maybe we’re going to do a heart. Maybe we’re going to do a yellow little stone here, a pink stone here. I like to try everything on, see it. We had one pair of earrings in the beginning and it was loose all the time. I called her right away. She said, ‘No problem.’”

As these businesswomen continue to work together, I was curious what each of them would say makes the other person their ideal and preferred partner for this jewelry collection.

Hilton said, “I would say I figured that out when we were sitting here for the first collection. We were doing interviews and I thought – She’s obviously smart. She’s got the background. Her father was in jewelry. She was in real jewelry and she’s very hardworking. I thought – You know what? I really can work with her. She’s got it – she doesn’t take herself seriously because I think she is so serious in her work, but socially, we spend time together. We travel together. We have trunk shows. We just came back from Dallas and we felt like a bunch of sorority girls.”

Zuckerman said, “For me, I look at Kathy – she’s the ultimate goddess, fashion model. Everything that Kathy touches, she turns into gold. I knew that before we even became friends. Then on top of it, not just knowing how business savvy she is and how successful Kathy is, but the fact that she’s so nurturing and caring. We had just moved to Los Angeles. I would have never moved to Los Angeles for anybody. Kathy said, ‘This is where you got to be.’”

While concluding our conversation, I wondered what advice Hilton and Zuckerman have for other women out there that are going to be starting their own companies, or already have small businesses that they want to see grow.

Hilton said, “Crawl before you walk. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Find somebody that you can get along with. If I say something, it doesn’t insult her. If she says something, I want somebody to be honest with me. I don’t know everything. You don’t know everything. It’s nice to have a partner.”

Zuckerman said, “There is no such thing as overnight success. It looks easy, but nobody knows what really went on. Have I cried at night and I couldn’t fall asleep, knowing that in the beginning, my account is overdrawn? We have orders coming in, we don’t know if they’re going to sell – Saks Fifth Avenue canceled. What are we going to do? Yes, you need to be a risk taker.”

Hilton added: “But don’t bite off more than you can chew. It’s just best to start out slow – crawl before you walk. If you were to ask me the most important thing – focus, focus, focus.”