About The Designers

  Jose and Maria Barrera started their business in the early 1980’s. They moved to New York City from South Texas after destiny brought a NYC actress to the University of Texas where she spotted José’s first jewelry piece, which was on display at a student exhibition and she decided she had to have it.

   Howard Benedikt is the man behind the name. It seems very few know very little about this designer other than his business was in New York and that he sold costume jewelry from his own New York City shop from 1955 to 1973. I have a rather large library on vintage jewelry and I can't even find a mention of him. 

    An architect by training, Carolee Friedlander founded the eponymous jewelry brand in 1972. According to Friedlander, she started her business on the kitchen table, creating a necklace of various beads and crystals. First of all, she wanted women not only to buy her jewelry pieces, but also to collect them. 

     Coco Chanel was a French designer and a businesswoman who ruled the Parisian haute couture for about sixty years. She is known for the classic innovations, including the quilted purse, the woman's suit, the “little black dress,” and costume jewelry. She was nicknamed “Coco” during her years as a singer.

  Seventy-five years after the first Christian Dior collection was shown, the House of Dior reinvents its birthplace. La Galerie Dior is a testament to the visionary boldness of Christian Dior and his six successors: Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré...

   In 1892 Emanuel Ciner opens a fine jewelry company on Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan. With a small, but uniquely skilled staff, he creates stylish gold and platinum pieces, including a patent for an “Improved Ear-Ring”

 Dominique Aurientis started her career in the Christian Dior atelier, moving on to the houses of Chanel, Givenchy, Lanvin, Ferragamo, Emilio Pucci, and Céline. She is a graduate of the University of Paris, La Sorbonne 

   Within the collective of emerging Parisian fashion brands called the Les Halles group, Dominique Denaive holds a special place by establishing himself as the flagship costume jewelry designer of his generation.  

 ESCADA offered: top quality in fabrics, fit and workmanship at affordable prices; sophisticated, imaginative design and extremely comfortable wear; a coordinate system with individual components that were perfectly color-coordinated to allow mixing & matching through several seasons. 

 Ferragamo found success, initially opening a shop for repair and made-to-measure shoes, leading to a long period of designing footwear for the cinema.