Among this year’s 10 CFDA/Vogue finalists are two jewelers, Bernard James and Ashley Moubayed of Don’t Let Disco. Both turned their Fashion Week debuts into memorable creative experiences.
Bernard James invited guests to his native Brooklyn, where he introduced his Crushed Link collection. The designer, mimicking the form of the jewelry, created a loop-shaped path for guests to follow between two spectacular penthouses at the top of One Domino Square. The views were phenomenal, and from those heights the jeweler was able to point out landmarks of special importance to him. Moubayed presented her Totem tassels, created a surreal feast from vintage beads, and hosted a beading bar at Cafe Zaffri. Below, they talk us through their collections and events.
Bernard James
Was this your NYFW debut?
This is the first time we’ve officially done something during Fashion Week. Because jewelry is on a much smaller scale than what you’re used to seeing [on the runway], it was important to do something that felt impactful and wouldn’t get lost in the madness. We wanted to create an experience for people to understand who we are as a brand and what we stand for.
And what is that?
I’m very big on jewelry living with you or being an extension of self. It’s one of the most intimate things we put in our bodies, so I like to focus on the things around us that help give context to the jewelry by further explaining what our interests are, what our aesthetic is. I wanted to create a world that felt like a great home.
How did you do that?
By focusing on the five senses. [For sound] we had two DJs; thinking about smell with the candles from Mind Games and the scent that was in the space; obviously, sight and looking at the gorgeous skyline as a backdrop to the jewelry; and taste with the incredible drink partners; and we had touch, which is being able to interact with the jewelry and the try-on suite.
Can you speak about the different cadence of jewelry versus fashion?
I was nervous about starting the conversation of Fashion Week because then I felt like it would start an expectation of a seasonal showing. I design really based on emotion…. It is hard to say, “Hey, look, we’ll come out with a new collection when we feel like it,” but it’s really about making sure everything that’s being said is intentional and we’re not just showing work for the sake of showing work. It has to tell a story, it has to have a message, and it has to be fully fleshed out.
What is the story behind the Crushed Link series you showed?
The thought was originally conceived when someone on my team accidentally left a silver ring on the floor of our first studio. I found it crushed and obviously was not happy about it, but there was such a beauty to the form that I wanted to turn this sort moment of unhappiness into something that’s really beautiful. And I started to think about how that relates to a lot of the things in our lives: We can’t control everything, not everything is going to be perfect, but it’s about finding the beauty in those moments.
I play a lot with negative space, so I’m really excited to have that same concept of negative space, where you see your skin through the jewelry [with the crushed links], but in a different form that’s not as linear. This organic shape just adds something different.
What’s next for you?
I haven’t thought of anything past [the presentation]. What’s next is maybe a day off and some rest. I am excited to actually sit with the collection, document it, and show the process of how it’s made. I’m really excited to photograph it in context and styled and see how it looks. I’ve personally been wearing it…and it already feels so natural and adds to the other collections.
Ashley Moubayed, Don’t Let Disco
What’s the idea behind your new collection?
This collection is inspired by the art of connection—literally and figuratively. The Totem tassels are essentially an evolution of our Keeper collar and the Keeper brooch. They are really special because they were developed based on a lot of beads that I had bought at auction that I had sitting [with] our archival collection, and then I infused them with semiprecious stones from another vintage necklace. We went through this lot of beads, and we were stacking different ones and seeing which ones want to sit next to one another. That’s how I work in my studio: I let them talk to me, and I tinker with them each day. They’re pretty laborious to make, but I think they’re so wonderful. We made about 20 of them. They come in three sizes, and they all have different personalities.
[The tassels can hang from our] Keeper collar, which is a continuous line of hand-sculpted sterling silver, which is now available in gold. The [backstory of] the Keeper is that when I’m in my studio, I have to get out and do sanity walks. I was really inspired by the raw-iron railings that I would see. When we do our bead bars, the bead tenders always have these aprons, and people [want them]. I wore an apron as my purse to the CFDA New York Fashion Week kickoff party. It fits quite a bit and you can also wear it crossbody, which is pretty fun.
Can you share more about your process?
I source beads from every corner: Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Etsy, and a lot of the bead trays that we use are actually ’50s cash register drawers.
When we source materials, sometimes we might have enough to make 19 of something, sometimes we only have enough to make one, and we’ll iterate on the process. Early on it was quite hard to get retail partners to understand that; now they love it. They number the pieces, just like we do on our website.
Something that makes the Don’t Let Disco brand really special is the community around it. We offer these really unique experiences called beading bars where people can come and can craft their own piece. We’ve had this long-standing relationship with The RealReal, where they give us jewelry that’s unfit for sale. We did our first event with The RealReal in November.
[With the beads they gave us for this event], I was like, “Well, why don’t we make it look like food?” So you’ve got the caviar corner. You’ve got little shrimp. You’ve got rock crystal ice. These cement beads look quite like butter.
The show notes are on seed paper, so you can plant them.
What’s next for you?
We’re coming up on five years old, and so I’m feeling the growing pains. When I moved in with my now husband, he was like, “You can have the second bedroom as a studio, but I never want to see you [leave] one single bead [elsewhere],” and he comes home and… I’m still tinkering with it.
We’re opening a showroom-studio space in Dumbo on the first of October; this is the next evolution. We do so many of these in-person activations. We have clients who plan their trips to New York around when they can get a chance to come to the beading bar, and so this is really the next step for us. I’m so excited about it.
I think that partaking in New York Fashion Week is a really nice launching pad for people to see us, learn more about us, and then come to our studio to really experience it. I also think the beading bar should help us to build a world in an atmosphere.
These interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.
