So, how fucking rad is this? LITTER is a jewelry design team made up of two sisters based in San Francisco and is absolutely fucking amazing! They specialize in head, shoe and body jewelry (although the necklaces + rings are pretty fab as well)...
Each piece made by Rachael and Mackenzie is a one of a kind piece made from second-hand items from flea markets, hardware stores, good-will and other random places - 'trash' so to say... the girls took the thesaurus to end up with the name "LITTER" for their custom pieces.
Both sisters studied design (Rachael studied interior design, while Mackenzie went for fashion design at FIT) and hadn't seen the jewelry design business as much of a business to them until people wanted the head pieces they had made for themselves. They then expanded to shoe jewelry (the company's best seller) and now my personal favorites - thigh & shoulder jewelry...
Are you guys making everything yourselves?
R: Yes, absolutely, we make everything ourselves.
M: We have a few interns, but it’s pretty much just us. We don’t have a background in jewelry making. Everyday is learning experience, with new techniques and seeing what looks good with what. I took a metal working class for a week, but we don't cast or solder or anything.
R: I do the drilling when necessary, but we are mainly repurposing items that already exist.
What point in time do you see yourself outsourcing the manufacturing?
R: Never.
M: Because of the rapid growth, not all of our chains are coming from flea markets now, like they used to
R: But that's the only difference. We might consider outsourcing the shoe jewelry. It's made out of heavy machine chain it's really hard on our hands to make. We like the Made-in-the-U.S.A. thing; it's very important to us, having that quality control.
You started selling LITTER from your blog with a, “Hey, look at our cool jewelry that we are wearing. If you like it, you can buy it” type thing. How did you come up with that business model?
M: Well, we couldn't afford a website – having it designed and whatnot – and we didn’t know how the public would react. Every piece we made, there was always a hesitation to actually put it out there.
R: Someone would say, “Oh I loved that piece you wore last night” and we would say, “Uh, really??” Not because it's bad or something, but when it’s your own art, you kind of second-guess it. So it's been really motivating to know that people like what we're doing.
M: So yeah, it started out as a fashion blog. We were posting our outfits, and making the jewelry for ourselves. And if someone asked where he or she could get it, we would direct him or her to our Etsy page.
*a snippet from the girls 'All that Litters' interview over at ANTHEM Magazine, which you can check out here.
I, myself, actually discovered LITTER through the sisters infamous blog @LITTERSFBLOG - which I suggest everyone check out & follow... along with heading over to their site @LITTERSF and ordering one, two of five of these phenomenal, rocker-chic jewelry pieces. Watch the fuck out, because these two hot sisters are about to blow up!
XXX
- the style whore
