“I’m strict,” says Dana Levy, when asked why a pair of electrifying turquoise earrings cost $2,820. By “strict,” she’s referring to the hours spent poring over stones, and the buying trips taken all over India and East Asia to find gems that are pristine, or rare, or both. What else would you expect from the daughter of a jewelry manufacturer, one who, at 23, runs her own design company?

“I grew up being told to never compromise,” says Levy, whose baubles retail at She, at Frances Heffernan, and at her Web site, www.danarebeccadesigns.com.

Photograph: Tyllie Barbosa