Jewelry designer Tracy Kahn has an accounting degree from the prestigious Wharton School of Business. "Usually I don't mention that right away," laughs Kahn, "because it sounds a bit, um, stodgy." Yes, she is a former Price Waterhouse corporate tax consultant, but the (currently)red-headed Brooklyn-based Kahn is hardly stodgy. Unfulfilled, she left the corporate world to explore design, and now Kahn is creating elegant custom jewelry for a bevy of A-list celebrities and Hollywood costume designers.
For the past three years Kahn has poured her energy into designing jewelry for her paste label, which is sold in select boutiques and department stores in the US, the UK and Japan. Her aesthetic ranges from whimsical to Elizabethan, from Flapper-chic to RollerDisco-glam, from jeans-and-a-tank-top to the most formal of bridal gowns. Always, however, her materials are top-quality, her stones and beads unique and light-catching, her concept thoughtful, and every piece hand-made.
Kahn is known for her excellent eye for color as well as a strong sensibility for the architecture, gravity and physics of jewelry. "You always have to be thinking about the contours of a woman's neck," she explains. "How a necklace is going to drape there. Is it a choker? Is it meant to hit at the collarbone? For the more composed pieces, this is all critical."
But as serious as this all sounds, Kahn agrees that great accessories are all about having a good time. "Dressing is about costuming -- it's about creating ourselves anew every time we open our closet doors. And jewelry is the most fun, the most personal, the most expressive part of that -- I'm just glad I know a designer who can hook me up!" she winks.
