Kendra Scott

Kendra Scott’s boutique at Grand Boulevard gives Emerald Coast shoppers a dose of Austin, Texas style, with a jewelry and accessories collection built around color, semiprecious stones, and the brand’s playful Color Bar customization concept. The Miramar Beach store sits at 495 Grand Boulevard alongside its retail neighbors and gives vacationers an easy stop for a gift, a special-occasion piece, or a personal souvenir of a Sandestin trip.

Kendra Scott, the designer, founded her namesake company in 2002 in Austin, working out of the spare bedroom of her home with just $500 in startup capital shortly after the birth of her oldest son. She built the business the hard way at first, personally carrying her jewelry samples to local boutiques around Austin and using the proceeds from those first sales to fund the next round of inventory. The brand’s break came when Oscar de la Renta selected her designs for his spring 2006 runway show, and the company grew further during the 2008 financial crisis, when a major order from Nordstrom gave the young business crucial national exposure.

The company opened its first retail store on Austin’s South Congress Avenue in 2010, the same year it launched e-commerce and introduced the Color Bar, the in-store customization counter that lets customers choose their own stone colors and finishes for a personalized piece. That concept has become one of Kendra Scott’s signature in-store experiences and is part of what shoppers can expect at the Grand Boulevard location as well. By 2016, the brand had grown enough to reach a billion-dollar valuation when Berkshire Partners acquired a minority stake, and by 2019 Kendra Scott operated more than 100 retail stores nationwide, with pieces also sold at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Selfridges.

Philanthropy has stayed central to the brand’s identity as it has grown. Kendra Scott launched the Kendra Cares program in 2015, bringing the Color Bar experience directly to pediatric hospitals, and the company has hosted thousands of local Kendra Gives Back fundraising events at its stores, donating tens of thousands of jewelry pieces and more than $30 million to charitable causes since 2010. Shoppers visiting the Grand Boulevard store may find similar giving-back events tied to local schools or causes during their trip, since individual Kendra Scott locations regularly host these events on their own calendars.

The Miramar Beach boutique can be reached at 850-204-5270 and keeps hours of Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., matching the rest of the Grand Boulevard shops. Because the store sits inside a walkable, open-air lifestyle center just outside Sandestin’s resort entrance, it makes an easy addition to an afternoon of shopping and dining. For travelers looking for a lasting souvenir of a Florida trip, whether a beach-inspired pendant or a custom Color Bar creation picked out on vacation, Kendra Scott’s Grand Boulevard store delivers Texas design sensibility with an Emerald Coast souvenir story attached. The full current collection can also be previewed at kendrascott.com before a visit.