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Women's

Eddie Borgo: Providence & Punk

Eddie Borgo’s jewelry gives the impression that the designer is a creature of city streets, a downtown kid, a New Yorker. And Borgo is those things. But given the chance, he’ll talk your ear off about the genteel metalsmithing tradition of Providence, Rhode Island, where he produces his eponymous jewelry line, and how it boomed into a center of costume jewelry manufacturing.

“Providence in the Sixties and Seventies was producing Chanel costume, Christian Dior costume, Pierre Cardin, Napier, Trifari. It was considered the costume jewelry capital of the world,” says Borgo.

The way things are going for Borgo, he may write a new chapter in the saga of American costume jewelry. He was just nominated for the CFDA’s Swarovsky Award For Accessory Design. His business mentor is Maureen Chiquet, CEO of Chanel, thanks to the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. And he has led a slightly charmed existence since he arrived in New York as a young pup.

“When I moved to New York, I was really interested in working at the Met’s Costume Institute. That lent itself, in a way, to making things. I was doing a lot of things by hand, just staying creative in those first years, when you just want to participate and find a niche. Luckily for me, I stumbled into this area, doing things for editors, then runway collaborations, then my collection. I always wanted to be hands-on,” he says.

A string of editorial commissions helped him develop a sense of visual impact, but the turning point came when Phillip Lim asked him to create jewelry for his runway show and insisted on giving him credit.

“Phillip wanted ombre stained glass. So I studied the glass at the Cathedral of St. John The Divine, and I took a glass-working class in Brooklyn. It was a huge learning curve. Phillip was instrumental in my decision to go out on my own, which is always scary,” Borgo says. He launched his line for Spring 2009 and quickly established a signature look—metals worked into edgy, geometric shapes, such as conical studs of sterling silver or plated brass.

“Every season, when I’m designing, I think about the woman who’s going to wear this. I’ve been lucky to have supporters like Lauren Santo Domingo, Vanessa Traina, Kate Lanphear, who’ve become our campaign models. We mail out a poster every season to editors and buyers. It’s essentially our campaign. This season we have Giovanna Battaglia. These are women who wear fine jewelry, too.”

Fine jewelry versus costume, uptown versus downtown, art versus commerce—Borgo simply isn’t limited by such distinctions.

Shop Eddie Borgo.