K/LLER Collection

Beautifully tough jewelry by a Brooklyn-based design duo

6 August 2012

Between the walls of an old nunnery in downtown Brooklyn work two designers who bonded over a shared interest in exploring the insides of things. Katie deGuzman and Michael Miller bring their line K/LLER Collection to live by tearing apart found materials and objects and deconstructing them to reveal the skeletal structure as a standalone aesthetic before reinterpreting it in their studio.

Their latest collection builds on that broken-down aesthetic to combine sturdy brass casting with delicate shapes like porcupine quills and petals, for a look that is at once androgynous yet surprisingly feminine.

The duo’s necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings are infused with a tangible spirit of renewal that deGuzman and Miller want people to feel when they wear their pieces. After meeting at Parsons in 2000, they started K/LLER in 2010 to mark their own artistic reinvention, saying, “We both had just left unhappy jobs and wanted to start fresh. We knew that we had similar aesthetics and work ethics, and got excited with the idea of working together.” Hard work and trial-and-error culminated in the collection that now appears in countless editorials, as well as the models at Helmut Lang and the characters on the HBO series True Blood.

K/LLER’s latest line seamlessly combines sharp edges with fanciful, hand-engraved patterns. The strong character of the collection is clearly designed for those with a penchant for layering statement pieces over more subtle amulets for a look that is entirely unique.

When asked about their most recent collection, the pair says that they “experimented with burnouts of deerskin lace cast into metal, and got some stunning results. The new designs play with the contrast between soft and hard, round and angular, telling the story of the original objects we deconstructed without literally defining them.”

DeGuzman and Miller’s hammered-brass bangles and spiky rings emit an androgynous industrial vibe that reflects their desire to see K/LLER’s spirit of reinvention permeate as many scenes, styles and aesthetics as possible.