Meredith Marks is living proof that necessity is the mother of invention.
The “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star, 50, got tired of not being able to read menus at dimly lit restaurants, so she created a fabulous solution.
“This is a magnifying glass,” she exclusively told Page Six Style at pal Sutton Stracke’s holiday party, holding up her gorgeous pendant.
“This is one of my newest collections: Magnifique. Because I can’t read the menu anymore!”
The Park City-based jewelry designer showed us the ruby-encrusted magnifying glass that hung around her neck on a chain long enough to allow for proper usage. Her signature “M” sat among the precious stones.
Marks’ Magnifique collection comes in both yellow and rose gold and features a variety of gems, including champagne diamonds, blue sapphires, pink sapphires, rubies and emeralds. The necklaces range in price from $6,400 to $20,000.
“All my friends started losing their vision maybe in their 40s,” Marks told us. “And I was always like, ‘I have monovision, naturally. I can see everything! One eye is nearsighted, the other eye is farsighted.’”
“Well, suddenly, they both start deteriorating,” she continued, noting that she has “the prescription for the glasses” but hasn’t “gotten it filled” because she likes using her fashionable invention instead.
“And you know, soft vision at a distance isn’t so bad. Everyone looks really pretty!” she quipped.
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The Bravolebrity launched her fine jewelry line at the height of the last major recession.
“I originally started with a lot of negative space because people still wanted to wear sizable pieces, but they didn’t wanna spend the money on it,” she shared.
“And then over time, I started filling in the space — maybe it was with a stone or maybe it was with gold, whatever. And then I started to evolve into more functional or multi-functional pieces.”
Taking off the diamond-studded, square-shaped ring she had on one of her perfectly manicured fingers, Marks excitedly explained, “It’s either a poison ring or a locket. So it opens!”
Her collection of poison rings that easily transform into lockets come in both yellow and rose gold as well as sterling silver, and they range in price from $1,295 to $4,600.
The reality star also showed us her signature Blair Ring, which can be worn in multiple ways.
“I designed and patented this clasp, where you can remove the ring chain and make a cuff that you can clip it into, and we notched two slits in the top to slip a chain through [to create a necklace],” she explained.
“With this clasp, we can make buttons, we can make cufflinks, we can make really anything with it.”
The Blair Multi-Functional Set includes the diamond-studded disc along with a ring base, a cuff and a necklace chain for a total of $8,500.
“I try to create things that are versatile and a little bit unusual, but not crazy,” Marks told us, calling her collection fun, wearable and valuable.
“[There’s] a lot of two-sided pieces, where you have something that has white diamonds on the front, you flip it around, it’s black diamonds,” she explained. “Earrings that are detachable, where you can put them on a necklace … to give some versatility and value at the end of the day, because you can wear it in multiple ways.”
“It’s great for travel because no one wants to bring, like, 22 different pieces when they’re traveling — except for me, of course,” she added with a laugh.
Marks knows that her fine jewelry line may not necessarily be everyone’s financial cup of tea, so she revealed to us that she’s in the process of creating Meredith Marks Essentials — a more affordable collection featuring “plated brass, no stones, just fun pieces like rings, hoops, necklaces.”
After all, she wants all of her customers to be able to look chic “and not break the bank.”
