Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Fashion Week kicks off at the tents tonight with the Heart Truth runway show, but off-site, the festivities have already begun. Last night in Chelsea, pretty young things sipped hot spiked cider at the DANNIJO Fall 2011 presentation. Jewelry design duo Danielle and Jodie Snyder welcomed family and friends (like socialite and reality TV personality Tinsley Mortimer) to retro-themed dreamland featuring a pair of vignettes inhabited with models styled in lush vintage, plus a lone gentleman sporting tats and a Stetson fedora.
"Jodie and I are sisters," Danielle explained. "Jodie is a little bit more classic and I'm a bit more bohemian inspired. So each season we try to tell a new story, but still touch on our different personalities and the juxtaposition of our different aesthetics to make for a really unique story. This season we were inspired by the pastoral frontier of the wild, wild west and we juxtaposed that with the shamelessly opulent era of the roaring 20's."
The models were wearing such gorgeous vintage ensembles (kudos to the stylist) that we almost missed looking at the super glam jewelry, which features lots of Swarovski bling and oxidized brass. Guests also kept gravitating toward the Stetson Man (nonchalantly puffing on a cigarette at one point), posing with him for pics like they were tourists at Disneyland.
Look out for DANNIJO again this week as they provide the jewelry for the runway show of another hot design duo, Vena Cava. "It's so different from this, which is so fun because you get so inspired by other designers," Jodie gushed. "So their theme is like a working girl, early 90's theme and the pieces are a little more architectural and a totally different vibe, but it was a great collaboration. We met them at an event and totally hit it off as friends and the whole thing was an organic process." Even better, the pieces for the Vena Cava show will be available in the future through DANNIJO.
The fashion might be smoking hot this week, but the weather is bitterly ice cold. Do Danielle and Jodie have any tips for keeping warm and toasty? "Starbucks!" the sisters exclaimed in unison. "Yeah, coffee," Jodie confirmed. "Just staying as warm as possible. And thick socks."
· DANNIJO [Official Site]