Luxe Accessories Designers: Added Attractions

Now hear this: Regardless of the recession, the new crop of accessories designers isn’t afraid to luxe it up a little.


Tobi Tobin Vintage Jewelry

Who: Tobi Tobin

Backstory: Michigan native Tobi Tobin’s career trajectory might make a good script. Tobin moved to L.A. after a stint modeling in Europe. She became a personal assistant, working for Keanu Reeves and others, then an interior decorator. But Tobin also creates clothes, home goods and jewelry, and she plans to open a store for it all at West Hollywood’s Sunset Plaza in May. “You grow a dream, you don’t arrive at one,” she says.

Collection: Party-hopping in France last summer, Tobin began creating necklaces to wear, crafted from assorted vintage finds. She uses rhinestone buttons, crystals, bone coat toggles, resin brooches, felt camellias, chandelier pieces, belt buckles and crocodile skin in the strands.

On letting go: “The necklaces are like my babies. I love them each so much; it’s hard for me to part with them. I almost want to tell women who buy them that they aren’t allowed to carelessly drop them on the floor after a night out. They should be put in a shadow box instead of in a drawer.”

Stats: Wholesale prices range from $250 to $2,600, and the first collection of 35 one-of-a-kind necklaces is sold exclusively at Maxfield.

— Rachel Brown