Are You An Autumn?

Sundance Horizon Duster, $198

I’m obsessed with color, having started out as an artist long before I realized I was actually a designer, and could get paid for selecting a color palette. All I’d have to do was follow a few simple rules, when planning the next big color trend. First, I’d ask myself, does it make sense? Meaning does it already exists in the collective fashion unconscious of endlessly recycled seasonal color stories? Then I’d check if the fashion industry was on board with let’s say turquoise and coral (they are for Spring 2010).

Like A Prayer Collection, Fall 2009

But when it comes to my own wardrobe, trends need not apply. I’ll stick with colors that are best suited to my fair freckled complexion, thanks. After decades of wearing colors that looked simply hideous on me, I discovered there were a few basic rules, which when followed would bring lasting harmony to the contents of your closet. These rules were published in 1981, although I didn’t catch on right away. Color Me Beautiful is a personal color guide for dummies, using the seasons of nature to identify your unique coloring and which colors look best on you. Everything else just looks wrong. Like all my 80’s fashion choices: the Stephen Sprouse inspired day-glow chartreuse cap, which made my face look greenish grey, and the lipstick red high waited peg leg pants I paired with a jade green Ralph Lauren cavalry bib shirt that made me look like an anemic traffic light.

Like A Prayer Collection, Fall 2009

This fall, 80’s color palettes are hot again (think Nancy Reagan red) but they still make me shudder. Thankfully, as an independent designer, I don’t have to follow those rules anymore. I wasn’t convinced about Pantone’s top 10 fall ’09 colors, choosing instead a universally flattering palette that’s earthy and bright for my Like A Prayer collection, pictured here. For myself, I fell in love with a variegated striped sweater coat from the Sundance catalog, noting that the unexpected mix of earth tones with orchid pink was just what I was thinking! It’s finally starting to make sense. I’m an Autumn.

Cynthia Rybakoff sterling silver and Japanese waxed cord Like A Prayer necklaces, $88 and bracelets, $68, at Supermarket.

Pearl City

I heart pearls, those delectable organic gems from the sea. Classic, but never old fashioned, pearls are transcendent. At the dawn of civilization, pearls were considered by far the most valuable of gemstones, long before the diamond became your BFF. Cleopatra is famously said to have consumed one in a wager against Marc Antony, as the world’s most expensive meal. During the Renaissance, the original fashion queen Elizabeth I understood the power of pearls, wearing them not only as baroque jewels but liberally sprinkled on her ornate gowns and elaborate wigs. Today, no proper jewelry wardrobe is complete without a fine strand of lustrous pearls.

For Fall 2009, pearls have gotten a bit cheeky. Wear your pearl baubles dripping from tangled silver chains with a quilted black leather biker jacket like a rebellious Jackie O. Better yet, show off a single perfect strand in true aristo style, like the opera length 8.5 millimeter Mikimoto pearls that Carrie wore throughout the Sex and the City movie, paired with a black deconstructed dress and towering studded heels for an au courant girl in the city vibe. Or just wear them to bed!

Do You Upcycle?

If you haven't been living under a rock, you are probably making an effort to recycle, which will reduce your waste into lesser quality, but highly usable component materials and maybe even save the environment! It's also known as downcycling. As a designer, I tend to think a lot about the upcycle as well, that is to create great looking new products from used stuff. To upcycle is to take salvaged parts and create a new object of greater value. It's nothing new, but using reclaimed or vintage components inbues designs with the spirit of their unique history. Not only is mixing things up more interesting aesthetically, it's also good for us. With our fragile biosphere increasingly in peril, supporting artisans who make upcycled goods is a socially conscious way to share our global commitment to good planetary housekeeping.

"Whoops-A-Daisy" by Matt Shapoff for Handmade On Peconic Bay, one-of-a-kind Cyanotype print in upcycled barnwood frame, $68 at Supermarket.

The Happening

What really happened at a happening? Here’s a great shot my father took back in 1966 of a beach happening in Montauk. The dust and scratches from the slide add to the arcane element of this composition. Balloons at the beach! What a party!

The term happening was first used in the late 50’s, to mean a performance or event that was considered art. And they were interactive! Like all good trends, the culture of happenings hit the mainstream by the late 60’s, when my parents first started trekking from Manhattan to the distant shores of the Hamptons. Many of my father’s slides from this time period are simply labeled “Happening”.

Superwoman

We all know that behind every Superman is a Superwoman. Clark, we appreciate your penchant for red and blue, but what about some rocks for her? What would make a strong statement? You definitely need to avoid green. Maybe something organic and futuristic looking in a crystal spike formation?

Cynthia Rybakoff sterling silver and rock crystal Fortress Of Solitude necklace, $74.00 and earrings, $38.00, from the Post Bling Collection at Supermarket.

Dripping Diamonds

Can luxury be democratic? Should we still buy it and wear it proudly? I think we can, but priorities have shifted dramatically in 2009. My new collection, appropriately entitled Post Bling, is based on more humble materials that either are real or fake versions of that ubiquitous rock, the diamond.

Cynthia Rybakoff sterling silver and raw diamond Dripping Diamonds necklace, $228.00 and earrings, $68.00 at Supermarket.

Inconspicuous Luxury

So we’ve entered a post-luxury era. What to wear now that we’ve all lost our shirts? Luxury is still desirable, of course. Who wouldn't want beautiful, high quality things if they could afford it? And things are starting to look up, but conspicuous consumption is so Ancien Régime. Time to take it down a notch, regardless of your wallet size.

Cynthia Rybakoff sterling silver and CZ Fake Necklace, $78.00 and Fake Hoops, $44.00 at Supermarket.

Set In Stone

pink and blue mix display with Spring 2009 runway inspiration
sources: Diane von Furstenburg, Diane Von Furstenburg, Bazaar, Wonder Sources

Designing tasteful modern jewelry with semi-precious stones requires a lot of time in the market selecting a few special materials and playing with the shapes and colors until the recipe seems just right...

pink and green mix display with Spring 2009 runway inspiration
sources: Lanvin, Elle, Oscar de la Renta, Wonder Sources

Creating mouth watering, over the top visual displays of semi-precious stone, meant to inspire other jewelry designers, requires a zen like immersion into the stone itself and a marathon approach to assembling a series of vignettes representing the season's top color stories.

shades of lavender and lilac display with Spring 2009 runway inspiration
sources: Vogue, Dolce & Gabbana via Bazaar, Vera Wang, Wonder Sources

It certainly helps that I create visual displays for a top notch wholesale stone dealer, whose vast inventory of semi-precious and precious stones, sourced from the far reaches of the globe, is entirely at my disposal. The result, a virtual jewel fantasy fit for queen.

Love Notes

It seems that pink is having another Spring moment, as it does every few years or so in the not so unrelated worlds of fashion and design. For Valentine's day, I've created a botanical photo illustration in geranium pink on smooth bright white stock and paired it with a grey textured envelope.

Love Notes, a blank note card, is part of our Handmade On Peconic Bay paper collection I design and produce with my husband Matt Shapoff, who is a photographer and printmaker. Our flagship store is a humble Etsy shop, where we sell my art print cards and Matt's Cyanotype prints and cards.

Handmade On Peconic Bay paper goods are also sold at The Parrish Art Musuem gift shop, and will be available on Supermarket in the near future. Be sure to check out Matt's stunning "Peconic Curiosities" series on CynthiaRybakoff.com, which is currently available wholesale only. If you have a shop and are interested in picking up the collection, contact me via Etsy or my website.

Handmade On Peconic Bay "Love Notes" Valentine's card, $3.50 on etsy.com.

Royal Treatment

Just spotted on Fashion Week Daily's Chic Report, my deep purple amethyst drops and chunky silver chain with royal purple double faced satin ribbon ties. It's official, purple is still relevant in 2009, after seriously trending for almost a year.

Grace at design*sponge, one of my fave design blogs, noticed the purple mini-trend last March in a wide range of products for Spring/Summer 2008. Purple was still running ultra cool for Fall/Winter 2008, when I debuted a color palette of royal purple, hunter green and cool grey gemstones for my sterling silver jewelry collection.

Cassandra at coco+kelley, whose color IQ rates at the genius level, and whom I recently discovered thanks to the forward thinking editors at Lucky, is also pondering the evolution of purple for 2009. Her prediction? Paler shades of lavender and lilac will replace the gemmy purples and juicy plums of 2008.


I couldn't agree more, as I put the finishing touches on my new collection, which will launch in February. The deep amethyst gems I showed for Fall/Winter 2008 will carry over into Spring 2009, accompanied by a tonal palette of rose quartz, light amethyst, and blue chalcedony.

Cynthia Rybakoff sterling silver and amethyst chain link earrings, $300; sterling silver handmade chain with purple ribbon ties, $1,380, both by request at CynthiaRybakoff.com.

Moody Blues

So far 2009 has me feeling blue. A muted grey-ish blue, more like the color of an overcast sky. My color forecast for Spring is infused with moody colors - faded cornfower, stormy grey, dusty violet, aging ballet pink, polar white. It's a soft and quiet mood, perhaps a reflection of a more global feeling of anticipation and the need to be surrounded by soothing things. I'll be wearing a lot of jewelry, scarves and handbags in these colors for the next few months against a backdrop of black denim, grey cashmere and tweed with a tropical punch of color here and there, like geranium, lime and mimosa.

Above is a palette of stones from my Spring 2009 jewelry collection, arranged by color family. There are pale pinks (morganite or pink aquamarine, rose quartz and pink Peruvian opal), translucent purples (ametrine and amethyst), violet-blues (iolite, chalcedony, blue opal, Umba sapphire), iridescent greys (labradorite) and icy whites (moonstone, rock crystal and snowy rock crystal druzy).

I started my career as a painter, at the age of seven and attained degrees in fine art and art history before dropping everything to design jewelry for a living. Along the way, I took a color theory class based on the work of Joseph Albers, the Bauhaus artist and professor who wrote a seminal book called "Interaction of Color", which changed my point of view forever. I have become savant like in the pursuit of a color story for my own jewelry and graphic design work and for the creative direction I do for other companies.

The reigning precious metal color of choice for the new mood is sterling silver. The more aged the patina, the better. If I'm not using vintage silver findings, which i never NEVER polish, I'll do a light oxidation treatment on new silver to give it a darker tone and worn feeling. I am also playing with the idea of tension between the romance and feminity of the stone colors and the hard edged masculinity of darkened silver, and have added some lovely soft ribbon details to soften the mix. The mint satin ribbon tie necklace above is made from organic tumbled green quartz stones with sterling silver accents.

Cynthia Rybakoff sterling silver and green quartz 24" necklace with mint ribbon ties, $700, by request at CynthiaRybakoff.com.

Black Watch

A piece of black jewelry is an essential item to own and wear year round, regardless of color and which of the seven biomes you reside. The colors you wear reflect your character and how you feel. Color should be a personal choice – what looks best with your hair color and skin tone. Black is the most functional color. It works well for everyone in any context. It can be conservative, classic, somber or edgy.

Black is the color I am favoring right now, mainly because I am overloaded on the rainbow palette in fashion and design that has been so prevalent lately. In the past couple of years I have acquired many brightly colored things including tangerine herringbone and cerulean wool jackets from J. Crew, a pair of West Elm canary yellow lacquer candlesticks and a Coach suede shoulder bag in the brightest green imaginable.

Fortunately, I own lots of unique black items that are timeless, like my Ralph by Ralph Lauren black goatskin fitted blazer from the late 90’s, my Fratelli Rossetti slim black leather riding boots with black leather pick stitching and my prized 1960’s Hermes black crocodile Piano Bag to name just a few.

This year, at home, I plan to add touches of black to our beige and white environment. Vintage items like carved picture frames with worn black paint and cloche jars on chipped black wood bases are desirable. Raw linen pillows with black graphic arabesques patterns will really pop in our small studio, and hardware in oil-rubbed bronze would break the monotony of chrome everything.


I design and wear a lot of black jewelry, highlights of which are currently featured on my portfolio site. The pieces I am wearing the most are my EveryDay small black diamonds studs set in a wide gold bezel, a sculptural black opal freeform necklace that adds a little drama to any outfit, and assorted Wedgwood black basalt Jasperware cameo pendants I wear two at a time.



Below is my top 10 list of unusual black gem stones and organic materials to add to your jewel box in 2009:

1. Wedgwood black basalt Jasperware cameos are in a word stunningly graphic. The stark black and white silhouettes and the matte stoneware surface is what attracts me most.

2. Black opal is as glorious as the night sky, twinkling and shimmering with tiny flecks specks of ruby red, emerald green and sapphire blue.

3. The sponge-like matte black surface texture of black lava beads are a wonderful contrast to shiny rich karat gold.

4. Jewelry made from wenge wood is something I used to craft myself, when I had a studio with a wood shop on 29th Street in the early 90's. Especially popular were hand carved wenge wood rings, of which no two were ever alike.

5. Hyperstein is an inexpensive but fabulous silvery opalescent stone with black striations running through it like tiger stripes.

6. Black Tourmaline gets its darker color from iron and occurs in triangular prism-like crystals that can be sliced into rough organic looking beads.

7. Jet as a gem material was highly popular during the reign of Queen Victoria, during which the Queen wore Whitby jet as part of her mourning dress. Jet is not a true mineral, and is derived from decaying wood under extreme pressure.

8. Black drusy, a mineral like onyx or hematite that is naturally covered with tiny sparkling crystals, is my preference over pave crystal. Don’t get me wrong, because I spent years gluing Swarovski crystals to my fake fabulous jewels in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I think I just inhaled too much epoxy.

9. Tahitian and black peacock freshwater cultured pearls are my favorite in the the pearl family. I spend hours choosing black pearls with smooth, unblemished surfaces that shine brightly in the perfect range of iridescent charcoal, olive, plum and teal.

10. Black diamond is at the top of my list because no other black gem stone is as luxuriously black and sparkly. To quote Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel: “It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.”

Cynthia Rybakoff 18k gold and black opal free-form necklace, $1,690; 18k gold and black diamond studs, $950, by request at CynthiaRybakoff.com.

Shining Example

Spotted on NOTCOUTURE, item #3567, my sterling silver handmade chain with royal purple ribbon ties. The site concept is simple and effective: a visual filtration of ideas + aesthetics + amusements. I recommend frequent visits to check out the latest in international fashion and design trends.

This necklace, which can be worn as a belt, is from the Link Collection, which launched in 2005. The entire collection of earrings, bracelets and rings is based on a single beveled link design, inspired by nautical chain. Each piece consists on individually cast links which are polished and connected one at a time. The monotony of pure silver is broken occasionally by saturated bursts of semi-precious stone color. You can see select styles in the silver gallery on CynthiaRybakoff.com.

Cynthia Rybakoff sterling silver handmade chain necklace with purple ribbon ties, $1,380, by request at CynthiaRybakoff.com.