Design Duo Behind Celebrity-Loved Jewelry Brand DEMARSON Jason Crantz and Marcela Ponce Reveal the Key to Their Creative Success

Jason Crantz and Marcela Ponce are a creative force to be reckoned with.

Best friends and designers of the celebrity-loved jewelry brand DEMARSON prove that friendship and business can mix successfully and cohesively.

Crantz and Ponce speak exclusively with OK! about how they met, the genesis of the company, their working relationship, the brand's objectives, having their pieces viewed by Anna Wintour, seeing their designs on A-listers and how they continuously keep their vision fresh.

Long before launching their own venture, Crantz and Ponce met as professionals in the fashion industry.

"In 2005, we both worked at Ralph Lauren," Ponce gushes. "We were both knitwear designers. We agree on this, but we clicked instantly."

Crantz adds, "We both worked there 10 years, give or take. We left at certain times and then went back. But when I went back, Marcela was working on the design team. She and I were designers under the lead, then under the creative. So we had to get along. There was no choice. This woman was saying to me, 'I'm hiring you, but you're going to have to get along with Marcela.' But she was saying the same thing to Marcela, like, 'Jason's coming. You're going to love him.' It was instant that day. We vibed right away."

Crantz and Ponce's shared love for intricate accessories and compatible working style laid the groundwork to launch DEMARSON in 2017.

"When we worked together [at Ralph Lauren], whenever we were working on the same thing, we would split what we were doing," Crantz says. "There are certain things that I was better at and certain that she was better at. But they would always give us the complicated runway pieces that had all this beading or had elaborate trims or feathers. But we would have so much fun doing that. We were always obsessed with accessories. Then when I left [the company], Marcela had her first child, and she was like, 'This is enough.'"

Ponce explains, "I wasn't staying without Jason. We had talked about starting something together. We would always talk about it. When we both left, I said, 'This is the time. This is it. Let's do something.' We started meeting every week. We were trying to figure it out. We knew that we wanted to do accessories. That was number one. It was not even a question. From there, it took a little time to massage the idea."

When developing their design thesis, the duo had very specific goals they wanted to achieve with the line.

"We knew we wanted to make something that's unique, super high-end and extremely well done," Ponce emphasizes their approach to the pieces.

"We had this really cool hardware and the trimming part of it really led us here," Crantz notes. "We also realized that if we wanted to be successful in business, we had to offer something at a price point that is more accessible because we're not Louis Vuitton. You could only take that so far."

Before Crantz and Ponce fully dedicated the brand to jewelry, they began attracting the attention of major players in the fashion world — including the former editor-in-chief of the world's biggest publication.

"We started with an accessory line and immediately got picked up by Vogue before we even launched," Ponce says.

"We were just blindly contacting people," Crantz adds. "Then the writer from Vogue wrote me back and said, 'I love your look book. I would love to see it, but would you come to our office next week?' She met us in the front. She said, 'Set everything up here.' We set up the rack of our accessories and then Anna Wintour came out and walked past it. She looked at everything and kind of smirked. We just smiled. We didn't expect her to talk to us, but she looked at everything."

Numerous A-listers have been spotted wearing DEMARSON pieces. Most recently, Sasha Obama was seen wearing the brand's Tina Hoops at the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

"The fact that she's not really out in public that much and she's wearing it," Ponce raves. "The one moment that she is everywhere. That was so cool."

"And Lady Gaga too," Crantz adds. "They weren't loaned. We don't really know how they got them. That's even more of a compliment because it's not like you're sending it to a stylist and you're like, 'I hope she wears it.'"

As trends come and go, Crantz and Ponce keep their vision singular and fresh.

"We're both creative people," Ponce explains. "If tomorrow you asked us to make a chair, we could probably figure it out, and we'd make a beautiful chair! We should only be creative because we haven't figured out work."

"And we're curious," Crantz points out. "We love to travel. We love art. We're obsessed with architecture. We send each other things all day long when we're not together. We're constantly looking at architecture. A lot of our pieces have that soft, angular and structural feel."