Kendra Scott is returning to the New York Fashion Week runway after 20 years, but CEO Chris Blakeslee is already thinking about what could come next. The brand’s jewelry will appear in PatBO’s show this week and be available to buy immediately. A jointly designed collection is planned for later, and Blakeslee said the company wants a larger presence at fashion week in future seasons. Eventually, its Western-inspired Yellow Rose brand could have a runway show of its own.
“This year, the products will be on the runway, but that is really the first chapter,” Blakeslee told Glossy.
For now, Kendra Scott is using the show to connect runway exposure with products customers can already purchase. The featured jewelry will be available on the brand’s website and in stores, while social content and prepared e-commerce assets will direct viewers to the pieces as the show unfolds. A Tuesday evening event, called After Slice, will bring together creators and feature more of the brand’s fall collection.
“We want things that are going to show up in New York Fashion Week to be the greatest expression of the brand, but we also want all of our consumers to be able to participate in it,” Blakeslee said. Kendra Scott is reviving see-now, buy-now on a smaller scale: The runway jewelry will be ready to purchase as soon as customers see it.
The company has experience with that kind of attention, even if it came from a more unlikely source. Its Elisa pendant became a regular feature in RushTok outfit videos, prompting Kendra Scott to take a pop-up tour to college campuses. Kendra Scott has since reported double-digit year-over-year growth during August rush weeks, according to its agency, January Digital.
The PatBO show places its jewelry in a different fashion setting, while retaining the possibility of a fast purchase from the fashion week community and fans.
It also arrives eight months into a new chapter for the company’s leadership. Blakeslee became CEO in January, after founder Kendra Scott temporarily returned to the role last August following Tom Nolan’s departure. The CFO and chief people officer also left at the time. Scott remains majority shareholder, executive chairwoman and chief visionary officer.
Blakeslee’s background is in apparel, not jewelry. Before joining Kendra Scott, he led Athleta and was previously president of Alo Yoga and Bella+Canvas. During his tenure at Alo, the activewear brand grew to more than $1 billion in annual sales in 2022. His two years at Athleta were less clear-cut: Gap credited him with beginning a brand reset, but comparable sales fell 8% in the first quarter of 2025, shortly before he stepped down.
He is careful not to apply the turnaround label to his new job. “The brand has had terrific success,” Blakeslee said. “It’s not a turnaround scenario. It’s an evolution into the next chapter.”
Part of that evolution involves giving customers more reasons to shop Kendra Scott beyond its best-known fashion jewelry, which is where founder Kendra Scott sees the most potential, according to Blakeslee. Fine jewelry is now its fastest-growing category, Blakeslee said. Eyewear is also growing quickly, and the company is developing more ways to customize it to give brand fans more unique glasses in the future. Fragrance is also being reworked with personalization in mind.
Following fashion week, Kendra Scott is introducing its first new material in seven years through Ever, a jewelry collection Blakeslee described as suitable for swimming, exercising and showering. It joins brands like BaubleBar and Hey Harper, which have built brands around this feature. The pieces will be prominent at After Slice and go on sale the following day. Blakeslee said the pieces are unlikely to appear in PatBO’s show, whose styling calls for more statement jewelry.
“There are certain things she doesn’t want to have to be thinking about [in terms of] care,” Blakeslee said of the customer. “She’s got a dynamic lifestyle.”
The expansion reaches beyond product. Blakeslee said Kendra Scott could “almost double” its U.S. store footprint and sees an opportunity to enter international markets, describing the business as “practically” entirely domestic. He did not give a timetable for the international jump. As Glossy previously reported, the brand had 168 U.S. stores in December 2025, after opening more than 25 that year.
The company’s most substantial move into clothing is taking place under a different name. At Yellow Rose by Kendra Scott, the Western-inspired brand launched in 2023, jewelry accounts for only about half of the business, Blakeslee said. The rest includes apparel, boots, hats and leather goods, which are seeing continued growth. A sixth Yellow Rose store is due to open in Fort Worth in roughly six weeks, and Blakeslee sees room to develop denim in particular.
Founder Kendra Scott previously told Glossy that Yellow Rose’s Austin flagship was meant to celebrate “heritage, craftsmanship and community,” not simply sell products. Collaborations helped establish where the brand could move next: Kendra Scott tested Western-wear partnerships before developing its own cowboy boots.
And there is precedent for a jewelry label using clothing to build out the world around its designs. Dannijo, which launched in 2008 with statement jewelry, later developed slip dresses and other ready-to-wear. Kendra Scott’s approach puts its apparel ambitions into a separate brand, one that Blakeslee believes has room to become much bigger, including with men’s styles.
“One of the first things Kendra said to me when we were talking about Yellow Rose after I got here,” he recalled, was: “‘Maybe Yellow Rose will be my runway brand.’ She wanted it to be the cowgirl brand that brought things to the cowboy, [too].”
