Meg Farris’ style always includes the finishing touch of adorning herself with jewelry.
“I love sets of jewelry,” says the WWL-TV medical and general assignment reporter. “If I have a necklace, I like to wear earrings, bracelets and rings to match.”
Her love of jewelry ended up creating a new hobby-business for the attractive television personality who has been working at WWL-TV for 35 years.
“I began designing and making jewelry in the late 1990s when my friend Karen Atkins and I lost our beloved dogs and we each wanted to make a silver charm bracelet with our pet’s dog tag as part of it. It didn’t take long for people who saw the bracelet to ask us to design one for them. We were soon in business and we named our company ‘SweetCoco Designs’ because Karen’s chocolate Labrador Retriever was ‘Coco’ and my Schnauzer-Lab mix was ‘Toute de Sweet,’ a play on the French expression ‘tout de suite.’”
Now when you see Meg on the air with one of her popular health reports, or her “Weight Loss Wednesday” or “Wrinkle Free Friday” programs, you will usually see her wearing her own jewelry designs. “My designs include delicate pieces but I definitely love making and wearing bold show pieces with real pearls and semi-precious stones,” she says. “I try to make one-of-a-kind or just a few of each design so there are almost no duplicates.”
With dressing for regular on-air television appearances taking a lot of thought and effort,
Meg always looks carefully put together with the latest classic fashions. Yet it is her personal jewelry designs that are eye catching and worthy of note.
“I like to mix family heirlooms with costume jewelry,” she says. “My style preference often finds me wearing gem colored clothes or black.” Then she goes on to explain that she loves clothes made from suede, leather or silk.
A native of New Orleans, her roots run deep in New Orleans —her mother Margaret Gandolfo Farris owned a needlepoint shop for 20 years and taught needlepoint as well as created award winning original needlepoint designs. “She was very involved in philanthropic projects and served as president of Friends of City Park. My father, Dr. Charles Farris Jr., was a local OB/GYN who delivered 15,000 babies.” Then she adds with pride: “My great grandfather, Paul H. Maloney, was a U.S. Congressman from New Orleans.”
Meg attended Newman from kindergarten through high school and graduated from the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss’) where she received a double major in print journalism and radio and television. When asked to comment on why she has always lived in New Orleans, she smiles and answers with a question: “Why would you want to leave when you can be with life-long friends and family and have your dream career? Here we are just different in a good way. We have such a rich culture and heritage, language, food, architecture, and spirit, and we talk to everyone.”
Even Meg’s approach to selling her jewelry is New Orleans friendly. “I usually have fun home shows,” she says. ”We always end up talking about health and fitness and why women should be on hormone replacement for menopause. I also love doing weddings and have made the bride’s gifts to her bridesmaids such as earrings, bracelets and necklaces. I also custom make pieces and remake any of my existing necklaces or bracelets to fit a person’s style or desired length.”
Imagine loving jewelry and then ending up making it for a hobby and business and having such an interesting showcase to share your designs by being an on-air model. “My style and career mesh perfectly,” she says