Ask fashionable New Yorkers old enough to have had their own credit cards in the late ’90s about Spooly D’s, a shop on Lafayette and Bleecker at the northern reaches of SoHo, and the stories about the good old days come flooding in: “Spooly D’s was the embodiment of downtown New York fashion at the time. She sold all the indie, cool-girl labels of the moment, with a smattering of excellent vintage. I believe I bought my first pair of Earl Jeans there.” Or this: “Shopping at Spooly D’s, you felt like you were part of this under-the-radar scene. Since street style wasn’t documented as instantaneously as it is today, you could find these interesting pieces for not too much money that you wore for yourself, not to be photographed.”
The she behind Spooly D’s was Julie Hollander, a lifelong New Yorker who came up in the fashion business, working for a dyeing company that made swatches for Stephen Sprouse (whom she knew from The Factory; in the ’80s her husband was the music director and assistant director of Andy Warhol’s 15 Minutes on MTV), doing shipping for Nicole Miller, and creating visuals for Express before landing at The Family Jewels, a packed-to-the-rafters vintage store that was a second home to magazine stylists of the time who went looking for archival inspiration there.
A chance run-in with a woman from Missouri with a warehouse full of pristine vintage she was eager to sell was the genesis of Spooly D’s. “It was never-touched ’20s-to-’70s suits, dresses, everything,” Hollander remembers. “My husband and I flew to St. Louis, and came back with duffel bags full of insane pieces that had never been seen.” She filled in the shop with emerging labels like Katayone Adeli, Rubin Chapelle, and Vanessa Bruno, and plenty of good vibes, and it became its own kind of fashion hangout. When the store quietly closed its doors in 2007, a casualty of a changing real estate market (Kith now occupies the corner space), Hollander turned her attention to her family, her yoga practice, and a burgeoning interest in jewelry making.
Crystal malas and endless knots came first; Hollander made them for herself and sold them to her fellow yoga practitioners, graduating to finer pieces as she made connections in New York’s Diamond District. Friends began commissioning one-off pieces for special occasions like anniversaries and the birth of a child; she once made a pair of diamond pavé dog tags for $80,000.
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Today, a significant part of her Bowen NYC business (which is named for her grandmother) is still custom work; other collections tap into her homegrown New York City roots. The blackened silver chains of bracelets evoke the twinkle of the Manhattan skyline, and single strand bracelets feature 18k gold lacquered in the vivid turquoise and fluorescent pink of the 1980s fashions you’d see at the Mudd Club, and are so-named.
Hollander’s flair with color has attracted Kirna Zabete’s Beth Buccini, who began stocking her pieces late last year. “Julie has such a sophisticated eye and her pieces are so unique and whimsical,” she says. “I love how she designs a collection around a theme so she’s able to show her design prowess along with her creative breadth.”
Still more pieces are inspired by Hollander’s spiritual practices and beliefs. An amethyst pendant is carved into Ganesha’s Tusk to “ward off obstacles” and the square green tourmaline inset in the Harmony pendant’s round disc was chosen for its “self-confidence boosting” powers. She currently has a thing for green. “I have tons of green tourmalines and I’m just going on this crazy trip about nature.” She’s equally passionate about Tarot and Chinese Astrology. “I work with magical thinking,” she says, and “I’ve got a good vibration.” Buying a piece of her statement jewelry, you’re guaranteed some good vibrations of your own.
Shop the collection at Bowen NYC.
