Designing a One of a Kind Ring for Kym Gold
(Kym Gold with PHX Fashion Week Director Brian Hill)
PHX Fashion Week wrapped up a few weeks ago and one of my most memorable experiences and greatest highlights from their designer boot camp was winning the Kym Gold Challenge and designing a runway-ready piece of jewelry for her. For those who may not be familiar with her name, you’ve probably heard of her brand, True Religion Jeans. Kym was the designer of and co-founded True Religion Jeans, building it from the ground up into a billion-dollar business, which is pretty amazing. She is also a best-selling author and producer. (I also love that she kept much of their manufacturing in LA!). As a designer and entrepreneur, I definitely look up to her and admire her accomplishments so being able to design for her was a dream come true.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first arrived at her home in LA, but she was very welcoming, very down to earth, and full of sound advice free of BS for our group of emerging designers. “Always be humble and always be grateful.”
After a Q&A with Kym, she and Brian from PHX Fashion Week introduced the challenge: to create a piece for Kym to wear to a red carpet event that embodied her signature “Disheveled Sexy” style. Raw diamonds immediately came to mind. To me, they embody that energy in that they are naturally alluring even before they are faceted and polished into the cuts we normally see in jewelry. And of course, because she loves diamonds!
Winning this challenge and creating this piece for Kym has definitely been an honor. I left her home feeling inspired and energized and designed a few different raw diamond looks for her, of which she loved the raw black diamond ring!
The finished piece at the bench