Pop, Pop: Pop Jewelry
With a collection that includes reproductions of soap boxes and silk-screened images of gruesome car accidents, famed pop artist Andy Warhol has perennially asked the question: What is art? Now, to the delight of fans and all who think jewelry-as-art deserves more attention, he posthumously poses the question to the jewelry industry, as his work inspires designer Robert Lee Morris to develop a line of jewelry and accessories.
It is a pairing of two formidable forces. Warhol’s work, image, and commentary on art and life (he is credited for inventing the “15 minutes of fame” concept) are so pervasive that a painted version of him was made into a stamp. Morris is similarly renowned in the jewelry industry and has worked on collections with fashion superstars Donna Karan and Calvin Klein.
Given that the two were friends and even exchanged artwork, Morris is a natural choice to design the collection. Morris is excited by the collaboration of artists’ visions: “It is about bringing a new kind of life to [Warhol’s] iconic images,” he said in a statement, “and merging them into my signature graphic language.” The result of these combined visions is currently under wraps; little is known about the new collection besides its inclusion of pieces for both men and women. ,BR>“I never think that people die. They just go to department stores,” Warhol once said. Soon they will buy Warhol jewelry by Robert Lee Morris there too, as the collection enters U.S. independent retailers and department stores this spring.
Weekly Gem The possibilities of the cupcake go way beyond chocolate or vanilla for 24-year-old entrepreneur Johnny Earle, who made a business out of a nickname. Johnny Cupcakes offers items like skateboards, duffel bags, and T-shirts playing on the cupcake theme. The quirky collection, which projects $1.2 million in sales this year, now includes skull-and-crossbones cupcake necklaces. How’s this for a description, found on the company Web site: “This Cupcake Necklace is made of Sterling Silver. … It also contains the magical powers from the Great Silver Cupcake Mountain”?
