CAVALIER BY JAY JEFFERS PRESENTS: 42 YEARS OF RENEGADE JEWELRY DESIGN BY ALEX & LEE

The past few months have been really busy with so many different projects(which has kept me from posting regularly, sorry!) and last week’s event at Cavalier by Jay Jeffers for my client, Alex & Lee, was one that has been in the works for awhile now.  I first introduced the line to my friend Michael Purdy last year when he told me about the amazing vision he and his partner and husband, Jay Jeffers had for their luxury lifestyle store, Cavalier.  He fell in love just as I did with Alex & Lee and we immediately  started to plan how we were going to introduce the brand to his clientele.  For months we’ve been collaborating on and curating a retrospective of their past 42 years of work and last Thursday,a big event was held at the store to launch this amazing presentation of their creations.

We created five different visual stories to show all of their work which covered:  Early Work, Fashion Collaborations, Art Collaborations, San Francisco in the 1970′s and Modern work.  All of the stories were displayed throughout the space including pieces, photography and narrative.

Alex & Lee collaborated with many designers over the years including Giorgio Sant Angelo, Geoffrey Beene, Oscar de la Renta, Alexis Bittar, Proenza Schouler, Dannijo and Emily Factor.  We put a sampling of each of those collections on display from their archives that many people haven’t seen in 30+ years.  So amazing!

The Art collaboration display included pieces that were on display at the opening of Salvador Dali’s museum in Spain, SF Moma, Palace of the Legion of Honor and many others.  Free floating collages and stacking collages were also on display to showcase their many mediums of object trouve’.

The opening event also featured amazing colored resin accessories by designer Alexandra Von Furstenberg. Her clean modern designs were a perfect pairing to Alex & Lee’s multi-layered collage work.

The event proved to be one of the best gatherings of the year with the an eclectic mix of SF legends, socialites, designers, artists, editors and fortune 500 CEO’s.

Cavalier by Jay Jeffers is located within Jay’s interior design office.  We utilized the entire space for the event allowing all of the visuals and displays to flow throughout.  The picture of Lee below is one of my all-time favorite pictures of him and the first time I saw it I envisioned it blown up huge on a wall. I can’t tell you how amazing it was to see this vision come true! Now if I could just get my hands on it….

Towards the middle of the space we re-created a vision of the Alex & Lee retail store, Phenomena, that opened on Sutter street in San Francisco in the late 1970′s. It was during this time that the boys became friends with the art to wear visionary, Sandra Sakata and her legendary store Obiko.  It was also at this time that Alex & Lee were featured in Native Funk and Flash, a book featuring Bay Area art to wear designers in the 1970′s that has become a major culture reference book for this time period.

All of the modern collection of Alex & Lee I merchandised together in a very impactful table display. These are the pieces in their current collection that are for sale in their store for the next week.  Wow, what a presentation this was! It only took me an entire day to create all these different stories…but it sure was fun!

I really loved seeing all of SF’s fashion flock out for the party.

The event was absolutely amazing and was a total dream come true for me.  I can’t tell you how moved I was to be able to be responsible for showcasing these artists 42 year span of work in such an amazing setting.  Michael and Jay are visionaries much like Alex & Lee and I feel so completely inspired to be involved in both of their brands.

Such an inspired event, with people that mean so much to me that are doing things that I am so passionate about.  This is the stuff dreams are made of.  My dreams

All photos by Drew Altizer