By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — A jewelry brand bringing Laguna Beach style to Westport opened Saturday at 74 Main St.

The Westport store is “gorjana” jewelry’s 49th store in the U.S. and its second in Connecticut, joining its Greenwich store on the company roster.

The gorjana brand focuses on style and “approachable pricing” according to Caroline Kelly, the Westport store manager.

“Pricing is very important to our brand,” she said. 

Its merchandise is designed to fill “a gap in the market- good quality but affordable,” she added. 

The gorjana website describes is products as “perfect everyday jewelry.”

The small Main Street store displays delicate jewelry including necklaces, rings and bracelets on the pale walls and clear showcases, creating a calm atmosphere with a Southern California vibe. 

The store was busy Saturday, with numerous customers, many of them young women, checking out the shop and its merchandise.

The company was founded as a wholesale business by Gorjana and Jason Reidel 20 years ago in Southern California. Gorjana, whose family immigrated from Serbia, designed all the jewelry then, and still does, Kelly said.

The couple, who are the CCO and CEO of the business, are in contact with individual stores often, the store manager said.

gorjana sold jewelry online only for several years, opening its first brick-and-mortar store in 2014. The first East Coast store opened in the West Village in Manhattan in 2017. Now there are four gorjana stores in the New York City metropolitan area, and stores in 14 states.

Before opening stores in Connecticut, gorjana officials looked up ad down the East Coast, Kelly said. Among the reasons they chose Westport is because it’s a beach town, and has many boutique-style stores.

“It was the perfect place to plant Southern California roots,” the store manager said. “We’re very happy to be joining the Main Street community in Westport.”

gorjana, 74 Main St., is open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. More information is available on the gorjana website. 

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Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.