Katerina Perez: My story

Six years ago, when I first launched KaterinaPerez.com, I would never have thought that I would one day become a respected international jewellery columnist, a specialist in the jewellery industry with 260,000 Instagram followers, and have tens of thousands of readers on my site. At the beginning of my career, I was just a person who really loved jewellery. I wanted to know everything about it, and share whatever I happened to learn with jewellery lovers all over the world.

At high school I studied English intensively. This was followed by my studies at the St. Petersburg University of Arts and Culture. After graduating, I borrowed $2,000 from my mother, and left for the UK in the hope of improving my language skills. My life as it is now began to take shape in London – as a result, I never returned home, but instead began to build a career for myself, focusing on jewellery sales and management in the British capital.

For five years I worked in jewellery boutiques: Asprey, Chaumet and Boghossian on the world famous Bond Street. I still remember how customers told me that they always looked forward to receiving emails from me – commenting on the elegance of my writing. Their comments were something of a pleasant surprise – but more than that, they inspired me to start talking about my favourite jewellery: collections, trends, news, and interesting facts about jewellery and stones. I did this first through VV magazine in London. For two years I worked there as a jewellery editor, until I realised that writing was my true passion and that, if I was honest with myself, this was what I wanted to spend my time doing. 

The obvious choice for me then was to launch my own website. Here, I could write at my own pace and about whatever topics took my fancy. I never studied to be a journalist, but I did really enjoy writing – so I decided to teach myself by trial and error – honing my literary skills through practice, exposure and feedback. In 2013, together with my husband, I took to WordPress and launched the first version of my website, katerinaperez.com.

Let it not be said that the first few years were easy: like all of those who chose a pioneering path, I very often had to confront things which I did not understand and about which I had no prior knowledge. I found myself faced time and time again with the question: “Who is it that needs this?” But a passionate love of jewellery, combined with hard work, and the perseverance and courage unique to Tauruses, meant that I was able to keep going. Now I have established myself, ultimately having reached the top tier of jewellery editors in Britain.

I should also note in this brief autobiography, that my passionate love of jewellery appeared originally in my childhood. Arriving, as I often do, back home to my parents in St. Petersburg recently, I found a picture of myself as a three-year-old. In the image, I am adorned from head to toe in my grandmother’s jewellery. Even at that tender age, my favourite thing was to root through my grandmother’s box of beads, rings and earrings. I would examine them, try them on and, of course, pirouette in front of the mirror, admiring my fashion sense. In many respects, nothing has changed – the only difference is the jewellery boutiques. In my hands nowadays, I find myself holding jewellery worth tens – if not hundreds – of thousands, and occasionally even millions of pounds. I showcase them online, so that everyone can enjoy the wide variety of jewellery masterpieces that I am fortunate enough to encounter on a daily basis. Hopefully, I will inspire women to brighten their own everyday wardrobes in whatever way they can.

The great actress Katherine Zeta-Jones once said: “Jewellery compliments you. Indeed, it makes you feel something truly special.” My question to you then, my readers, is: why deny yourself this pleasure of feeling special as often as you want?