We often feel like the second career of every stifled creative woman working an analytic job is jewelry designer. The volume of press releases announcing new jewelry designers breaking free from their corporate life simply astounds. Everyone it believes they can help us accessorize. And yet so little quality seems to emerge from the morass of hopefuls that we had despaired of ever unearthing something of value. It seemed best to stay with established names when laying out for life's most precious purchases.

But just as we reached the pits of disinterest a beacon of hope emerged. Manju Jasty's namesake Manju Jasty Fine Jewelry is a new line worth discovering.

Inspired by classic Indian design, crafted from the finest quality materials, and honed by fresh aesthetics, Manju Jasty is a cultural treasure trove of ancient influences for modern women. With a focus on updating traditional Indian jewelry, the line features "negative" space as a way to lighten and renew for sophisticated yet easy to wear designs.

This was certainly the opinion of Barney's Fashion Director Julie Gilhart who by a chance encounter met Jasty. The designer charmingly did not know the director and was unaware of the buyer's incredible influence when Gilhart encouraged her work. In fashion fairytale form, Gilhart picked up the line for Barney's.

Jasty, an MBA and investment banker, had just left her job at Barclays Capital and from talking with her it sounds as if she was not entirely convinced jewelry was the route to go. And while its tempting to say it was meant to be with a first name derived from the Sanskrit word meaning “jewel box,” trust us when we say it could have gone poorly. The fact that Jasty had talent and inspiration to transcend the cliché made us take notice. But then perhaps we were simply jaded, for if anyone knows the true value of an updated cultural classic its a banker. We like to think its akin to rebranding a jewelry tradition. Nothing says success like taking an underperforming asset like one's heritage and making it live again.

While checking up on local New York jewelry designer, Wendy Nichol, we discovered Nichol's daughter modeling in her newest look book. The shoot, a very pretty, very sweet, very Marc Jacobs-inspired gallery of images, shows the leather-covered hearts and pyramid shapes that are prominent in this most recent collection as worn by the youngest of the Nichol's clan. We know Nichol from our days in e-commerce and know that she and her family are more or less the perfect version of 'I'm never moving to the suburbs' and so we only saw it is as very sweet and quirky of the Nichols family. How will other people feel, we wonder? It's hard to say. If anything the shoot will bring some extra-jewelry shopping attention to her brand or, at worst, upset people who misconstrue it as inappropriate or damaging to put a young girl in mascara--it does, in a way, make us feel old and haggard even in our mid-twenties. Look book aside, Wendy Nichol is an amazing jewelry designer. Her rock and roll vibe and balance between costumery and fine jewelry has made her a prominant New York designer. In the end, our headline is 'cute daughter in tough-girl jewelry makes for Marc Jacobsy/quirky look book'. It's a winner.

A while back we posted on Deka Ray jewelry and spoke with designer Eugenie Huang about her work. Because we pulled Huang's newest designs for our The Sun Doesn't Care photo shoot, we've decided to pull part of that conversation out from the archives--in case you missed it the first time around. Huang, since last we spoke, has added larger-than-life pieces to her collection and had numerous publications shoutout her work. Deka Ray has landed everything from a huge Refinery 29 story to a feature in Elle magazine. Huang's architecture pursuits are still going strong but with orders streaming in from all over the world, she's being kept quite busy. Below, an excerpt from our post on Deka Ray,

...Being young, pretty, and ambitious usually means you've some sort of thriving business going on, and that's perfectly fine. The aspect that's often missing, in a city where anyone can do anything, are the designers who treat their work as a craft, and who've dedicated their time to learn about it on a deeper (daresay, classical) level...With a B.S. in Architecture from M.I.T. and a Masters from Columbia, Huang has been trained to meditate on the relationship of spaces and materials and to create based on those findings. As Huang says,

"I think of Deka Ray as being someone or something otherworldly landing in the woods of North Carolina [where I grew up] and gleaning ideas from this environment mixed with more futuristic notions about technology. Very much in line with the "future primitive" concept."

Sometimes all it takes is a closer look to realize that some girls aren't just makin' jewelry.

Last week, as part of London Jewelry Week, Swarovski challenged sixteen designers to create their ultimate vision of catwalk jewelry. Swarovski, ever the generous participant in Fashion Week, seems to understand that the allowing for the outrageous will keep their name at the forefront of fashion--even if their average customer isn't looking for anything remotely avant garde. The designers, mostly jewelers (not clothing designers), came up with their couture incarnations of what might represent, as Swarovski put it, "new expressions for crystal in jewels". That they did. London Jewelry Week took place this June 11-15th and hosted receptions, collection launches, and workshops all over the city to celebrate the world's leading jewelers, who design everything from costume to fine jewelry. Somehow, we're guessing that Swarovski trumped the week's events. Either that, or they gave everyone seizures from the sparkle.

Seasonal trends and must-haves aside, there is one accessory category that never loses its magic. Inherent opulence make jewelry the undisputed icing on the cake of fashion, so what better topic for this week’s Garmento? We visited the Soho studio of Carmen Fritsch, of MeshNY, to learn the process of jewelry design and find out what it takes to start your own line.

Carmen is a descendent of 3 generations of jewelry designers, so after taking classes with industry veteran Boris Goynatsky, starting a line together seemed like the next natural step. They developed a signature technique, and then combined their skills in design, production and marketing to create an initial collection made exclusively from precious metals. Three years later, MeshNY has been featured on TV shows from Desperate Housewives to Lipstick Jungle, and on the pages of Elle and Lucky Magazine.

MeshNY’s intricate designs are glamorous, but their development and production is all hard work. Jewelry design requires tons of start-up capital (way more than apparel design), and in recent years, many local jewelry plating businesses have closed because of increasing health concerns and overhead costs. At MeshNY, each piece is made of either pure sterling silver, sterling plated with gold, or pure 18k gold, because metal alloys can’t be plated and aren’t as long lasting as silver or gold. Boris showed us how wax carving and metal-smithing are used to make the first molds, which are then cast into a more permanent silicon mold, from which multiple copies of a design can be made. Some pieces are too intricate or three-dimensional for this technique, and have to be individually reproduced. Check out the video and photos below to see the equipment jewelers use to make a mold.

Working against the odds to make their design dreams a reality has given both Carmen and Boris a great sense of humor. When asked for advice to give aspiring jewelry entrepreneurs, the duo cracked a series of jokes before suggesting that serious financial backing, unique design concepts, commitment and a little luck are the key. Here at Garmento, though, we know that learning to laugh in this industry will take you a long way, too.

About Garmento: Garmento is a weekly feature on Coutorture devoted to giving you an inside look at the real fashion industry. Before the runway reviews and the photo shoots, before the ad campaigns and the Vogue editorials, an enormous network of fashion professionals are involved in the creation of every garment. Check us out every week for a new perspective on each step, from trend forecasting and design to manufacturing and sales. With every new profile, you’ll see that whether your fav outfit is from H&M or Hermes, the process is the same. Don’t become a fashion victim- inform yourself weekly with Garmento, and unleash the smart and savvy shopper within.

About Bob Bland: Bob Bland is a freelance writer and professional menswear designer with experience at Triple Five Soul, Rugby by Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Banana Republic. She is also the designer and founder of Brooklyn Royalty, a Williamsburg-based line of men’s and ladies’ apparel. Founded in 2006, the line combines timeless design principles, premium materials and hand-printed graphics for indispensible garments that are meant to look and wear better over time. For more on Bob Bland and Brooklyn Royalty, check out www.brooklynroyalty.com.

Links:
MeshNY
Garmento:Inside Trend Forecasting
Garmento: Inside Denim Fabric Sourcing
Garmento: Inside Boutique Owning
Garmento: Inside Leather Manufacturing
Garmento: Inside Screenprinting