Head Designer and President, Christian Caine
by Kensie Westerfield
Christopher Rankin owns one of the most successful jewelry stores in West Virginia. With his close proximity to the Washington D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas, he serves a wide base of clientele. Growing his jewelry store, Christian Caine, he has been able to experience the world. Design trips took him throughout the United States and Europe before he finally settled on a studio overlooking the Seine River in Paris, France. The small working design studio, located steps away from Notre Dame, remained an integral part of the company until recently.
Rankin’s artistic aptitude began to develop when he was very young. “I was about seven years old and we lived in Northern Virginia. Our next door neighbor was an artist. One evening he asked me if I wanted to paint. He took me up to his studio and put a blank piece of canvas on an easel and handed me a brush. He would give me a little bit of direction, but basically he just let me go. I worked on the painting the rest of the summer, but never got to finish. The experience, despite my young age, stayed with me all these years.”
Rankin attended Shepherd College with aspirations of being a stock broker. In the midst of studying for the broker exams, the stock market crashed in 1987 and his direction turned toward the jewelry business. He had worked briefly in the jewelry field after college but had no formal training or family members in the business. Encouraged by his brother and grandmother, Rankin opened Christian Caine in the spring of 1990. Named after his grandmother, the 200-square-foot store began humbly. “My inventory consisted of four gold chains and a lot of enthusiasm. At the time, I was too naive to know I had very little chance of succeeding. I am glad everyone was too kind to clue me in or I wouldn’t be here today.”
The first few years the company struggled before he figured out he needed to run his business differently. “Over time, I had started to learn how much I did not know and had probably been doing this seven or eight years before I began to figure it out. I started studying and copyrighting designs and I started taking the brand very seriously. I would encourage someone that if you find something that you really like to do and you stick with it long enough, you will be successful.”
Rankin was blessed to be able to study under Robert Aherens, the head designer for the French jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels in Beverly Hills.
“Just after Mr. Aherens retired, he did a lot of teaching, so I moved to Los Angeles and studied with him. He taught me the skills to paint and to draw, but, more importantly, he gave me the vision and the perspective to look at jewelry, which is to not look at jewelry at all. He told me that if I really want to design interesting and provoking pieces, that I need to stop looking at jewelry and look at the world.”
Gaining the type of success that Rankin has achieved was not always easy and it was not attained alone. He credits the people that he works with as being the engine that keeps it all going. “They are Christian Caine. Whatever success I have achieved is directly linked to their talent and hard work. They truly deserve the recognition.”
Paris has always been a special place to Rankin and inspired him to create one of his signature collections. “The first night I spent in the studio, the sun had just set and the night sky was clear. I could see the reflection of the stars in the Seine River just below my window. There was a young couple nestled together on the bench looking at each other and the dancing lights on the water. This was the inspiration behind ‘A Romance in Paris.’”
Rankin has combined three of his passions into one. “I love working with and coaching kids. I have always enjoyed sports of every kind and to be able to put those together in a setting that shares Jesus with kids is a cool thing. Upward Sports is a national Christian organization that provides a positive atmosphere for kids to build self-esteem and values through sports.” It was the passion for all three of these that helped him select an Upward ball as his favorite thing.
