Bronx-based jewelry maker Lia Lowenthal took her brand, LL, LLC, to new heights last month with a collection for New York Fashion Week made of parts from decommissioned Lime scooters.
Lowenthal said she often enjoys collaborating on adventurous ideas that seem unlikely or impossible at first. When Lime approached her with the idea of creating jewelry out of scooters, she said she was “immediately drawn to the idea.”
“I didn’t know how to, but I knew I could figure it out,” Lowenthal said.
Utilizing her background in fine art, photography and sculpture, as well as her love for New York City’s Art Deco design, she created a choker, bracelet, earrings and ring that were displayed alongside her regular LL, LLC collection at The Standard East Village on Sept. 18. The ring and bracelet were also worn on the runway at a Gabe Gordon show.
Even before the unique collaboration, Lime was already “part of my landscape,” Lowenthal said.
She lives in Pelham Parkway, where she said the bright green and white scooters are a “really popular mode of transport” in an area that has many gaps between trains and buses.
The company gave her three complete decommissioned scooters and a box of orange reflectors with which to create original pieces. Working out of her South Bronx studio and a Diamond District facility for the metal casting work, Lowenthal said she cut down parts of the scooter’s aluminum stem, the part that attaches to the handlebars, into emerald gem shapes and crushed the orange reflectors to cast in epoxy.
Lowenthal said she wanted to make pieces that were “recognizably Lime,” especially preserving the eye-catching green, and the triangle shapes of the bracelet and earrings are a reference to the company logo — segments of a cross-sectioned lime.
At the same time, the Lime pieces were also inspired by Art Deco architecture. The choker necklace mimics the intricate brick facades of many old buildings, said Lowenthal.
As a first-time Fashion Week collaborator, she said Lime was a great partner. The company was “very game,” she said. “They just let me go at it.”
The Lime pieces were not entirely out of step with Lowenthal’s regular LL, LLC collection. She said her work is often “infused with a sense of humor or wit,” at times “cutting through what would be seen as conventionally feminine” or highbrow.
Creating gemstones out of “something that lives on the street,” like a Lime scooter, and doing it with careful craftsmanship, is highly consistent with her style, Lowenthal said.
Her LL, LLC collection includes several twists on everyday items, such as earrings made of the metal striker from a lighter, a watch band with no timepiece and half of a cut-up credit card made into a gold keychain.
She also created an “ex-wife”-themed charm bracelet with what she described as “false symbols of affection,” including a closed lock and “I love you” written in the Chase Manhattan font.
Overall, Lowenthal said her collections reflect the hustle, energy and collaboration of the Bronx and Midtown, “where high and low collide.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
