Leave it to a New Yorker to create this quirky, quasi–self-defense number: the Subway ring. Jewelry designer, Mindy Recht, of CJ Recht in Manhattan casts this thorny-looking style in in sterling silver or in bronze, though her original was made in wire.

“I like to play and experiment in wire, and I was going through a period where I was fascinated with spikes when I made this,” she tells JCK. “Then someone told me that this piece looked defensive, and I joked that it could be used to get people to back off in the subway. It does leave a mark.”

Though Recht has never needed to use it for protection purposes, it serves as quite a conversation starter at trunk shows, and perhaps even as an incentive for would-be wayward companions to keep their behavior in check.

“Usually a woman puts it and gently punches her boyfriend in the arm with it,” she observes. “Inevitably, the guy is like, ‘Okay, I get it!’”

Subway ring in silver and bronze; $250 and $230, respectively

JCK