Dates of Operation: Early 1990s – Present
Alexis Bittar was born in 1968 and raised in Brooklyn. His parents were both university professors who appreciated antiques and encouraged their son’s early interest in them. By the age of eight, Bittar was selling vintage items, including jewelry, on the streets of Soho, New York City.
In the early 1990s, Bittar designed a unique jewelry line made of hand-carved Lucite that he sold in the East Village of Soho. In 1992 the fashion director of Bergdorf-Goodman discovered his jewelry and recognized his talent. In the next few years Bittar’s jewelry was sold in Bergdorf-Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and in quality stores in the U.S., London, and Japan. Bittar opened his first brick and mortar store in 2004.
Alexis Bittar knew the quality of vintage costume jewelry. He wanted to match that with his designs.
The care that goes into creating every necklace, bracelet, ring, and earring reflects our belief that the pieces are to be viewed as collectible, modern heirlooms that will stand the test of time.”
www.alexisbittar.com
Bittar Lucite jewelry is hand-carved and often embellished with rhinestones, metal elements, and semi-precious stones. The sculpted Lucite is shaped to take advantage of reflected light giving the pieces a distinctive glow.
From the beginning, Bittar’s hand-carved Lucite pieces were popular, distinctive, and recognizable designs. Customers loved them.
In the following interview Bittar discusses his choice of Lucite for his designs.
Lucite is futuristic, and I liked the material. I used what was done in the ’30s where they hand sculpted it. Because Lucite is clear, I liked the idea of treating the material as an art medium that can be sculpted to anything you want. We don’t use molds…everything is cut from a sheet and sculpted.
www.chicagotribune.com article by Wendy Donahue, April 3, 2015 From street sales at age 8, Alexis Bittar sculpts a jewelry empire
In the beginning, Bittar designed two jewelry lines: hand-carved Lucite jewelry and the “Elements” line. Some designs like this pendant do not include any carved Lucite elements.
Other designs, like the Art Deco inspired necklace shown below combine metal and hand-carved Lucite elements.
The manufacturing process is complex. First Bittar sketches a design. Then skilled jewelry designers use CAD (Computer Aided Design) to create a workable model. Stones and metal pieces are imported from India and Thailand. When all of these elements are ready, the jewelry is assembled. As many as 20 people work on each completed piece. (Video with Alexis Bittar What Goes Into Alexis Bittar’s Hand-carved Lucite Jewelry? by Rue Staff published in Fashion April 7, 2016)
Bittar kept his jewelry in the forefront of fashion through collaborations with fashion icons including Este Lauder and Michael Kors. His jewelry attracted many fashionable clients including Madonna, Michelle Obama, and Rihanna.
Along with his artistic vision, Bittar was a superb businessman quickly building his jewelry business into a multi-million-dollar enterprise. In 2012 Bittar entered a partnership with TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity company. TSG positioned the brand to be sold in 2015 to Carolee LLC, the jewelry division of Brooks Brothers. This was a business decision and a normal practice for individually owned brands at the time.
When Bittar sold the business, he also sold the rights to his name. He then walked away from Alexis Bittar Jewelry for five years. Bittar did not design the jewelry bearing his name produced between 2015 and 2020. The Bittar jewelry at this time was sold wholesale which means it was produced in large quantities and sold to retailers. Hand-carved designs continued to be made in the original Bittar New York location.
In 2020, during the pandemic, Brooks Brothers, Inc. filed for bankruptcy. At this time, Bittar bought back his name and relaunched his business with several interesting changes.
Beginning in 2021 Bittar closed the wholesale business and opened boutiques in New York and San Francisco. He hired contractors, rather than full time employees, to produce his products including the popular hand-carved designs. He marketed his brand as a “lifestyle” brand which included Bittar jewelry and his own line of handbags and homewares. His website also sells vintage items, including vintage costume jewelry.
Summarized from an article published in Fashionista titled The Second Coming of Alexis Bittar by Ana Colon, October 27, 2021
The selection of vintage costume jewelry varies. At the time of the writing of this article some of the names included Alexis Kirk, Schiaparelli, Premier Designs, Trifari, Mazer, Monet, and Nina Ricci. The criteria used to hand-select these vintage designs is shared on the Bittar website.
When making hand-selections for the antique costume jewelry collection, pieces are chosen that embody the vision and stylistic impressions of the Alexis Bittar jewelry collection. These antique costume pieces are playful at times, textured, colorful, understated, and ultimately tell a story.
www.alexisbittar.com
Today the Bittar jewelry is sold in high-end stores and in Bittar boutiques. The necklace below was purchased in January of 2023 from Alexis Bittar’s “lifestyle” brand website. It was also sold at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. This design sold-out in all three locations.
Brooklyn-based jewelry and lifestyle brand Alexis Bittar sits at the intersection of art and fashion. With a wide variety of fine jewelry, home decor, accessories, Lucite jewelry, and different types of metal jewelry, Alexis Bittar has specialty pieces for everyone.
www.alexisbittar.com
Signatures:
Most Bittar jewelry is signed. The following are some of the most commonly found signatures.
GALLERY
Both the yellow and gray bracelets below have the same overall design. Due to the variations in hand-carved jewelry, each piece is one-of-a-kind.
The shape of the interior is round. The outside shape is square with four peaks or corners. The gray bracelet is slightly larger but both bracelets fit an average size wrist.
This side view shows the variations in the way the peaks are carved. The peaks on the gray bracelet meet at a central point. They do not meet in the yellow bracelet.
Alexis Bittar developed the techniques used to hand-carve the Bittar bracelets and the skills required for each piece.
There are two things I struggle with working with it [Lucite] as a medium for twenty years now. One is the depth its hard to control the sense of depth when you’re carving it and we gild it so it reflects the light but sometimes you don’t want it to look so soft. You want it to visibly look like it has more of an exterior surface when it doesn’t. The other is that I can make it look fluid but its really just a dense substance that you have to carve and work hard to manipulate.
Alexis Bittar interview with www.chicago.racked.com by Jared Hatch April 7, 2011 Q & A: Alexis Bittar on Childhood antiquing, Taxidermy, and the Difficulties of Working with Lucite
Square and rectangular shapes add an interesting grid pattern to the cuff bracelet shown below, but also contribute to the way the Lucite projects the lavender color.
The side view shows the way the lavender color looks gray when turned in the light. The square grids in the front are replaced by tapered rectangular grids on the side so that they have the correct perspective as the slope of the bracelet diminishes.
The cuff fits a small wrist and cannot be adjusted due to the thickness and rigid strength of Lucite.
This view shows the thickness of the Lucite and the typical Bittar backing color.
The bracelets below illustrate two examples of Bittar hinged designs with metal embellishments.
Both of these bracelets are symmetrical in shape and design. The bracelet on the left is a light beige or champagne color. The bracelet on the right has gray and black zebra stripes.
The zebra bracelet is decorated with two hematite squares at the front of the bracelet and four squares at the back.
The beige bracelet is decorated with intersecting rope-style metal wires. The skilled craftsperson started with a thick piece of Lucite and then carved away the excess material leaving soft mounds of Lucite evenly spaced all of the way around. Grooves were cut to hold the metal wires glued in place to outline the carved mounds.
Bittar is well known for his hand-carved floral designs. The two pins shown below have similar shapes and designs but are different in color and in size. They are both symmetrical designs with the central point of focus in the center.
The green floral measures 2 1/4″ in diameter. Carved grooves radiate from the center point to form each individual petal. The fuchsia color of the beads is a strong contrast with the green and draws the “eye” to the center. This sculptural design glows in the reflected light.
The large floral below measures 3 1/4″ in diameter. The overall shape is similar to the green floral. Grooves in the hand-carved Lucite radiate from the center point to form the petals.
The center of the large floral is elaborately decorated with three gold tone metal stamen and tiny brass studs. The colors gradually change from bright yellow in the center, to white, and then to peach at the edge. Yellow is a strong primary color that draws the “eye” to the center.
The back view for each floral illustrates typical Alexis Bittar design traits for hand-carved pieces. First the clasp is partially buried under the backing. Also, the signature plaque is recessed into the back. Although the color of the backing varies, the gold color shown below is often used.
Bittar earring designs, especially the light-weight hand-carved Lucite earrings, define wearable art. They are often distinctive in design and comfortable to wear.
The diamond-shaped earrings shown below feature burnt orange, hand-carved Lucite embedded with flat-backed crystals. Sometimes this kind of decoration is described as being “diamond dusted”.
The crystals lead the eye to the bottom “dark” tips of the earrings.
Author’s Note: The design of this earring is my favorite because it is light-weight, comfortable to wear, and has an attractive “glow”. The versatile color coordinates with most outfits. Should the earring wire wear over time, it is easily replaced without the help of a jeweler.
Alexis Bittar appreciates the rich history of collectible costume jewelry and sometimes creates modern jewelry designs based on past eras. For example, the necklace shown below is Art Deco in motif created with hand-carved Lucite combined with modern Art Deco-style elements.
The interesting pendant is oval in shape with flat sides. It is a substantial 1/4″ thick piece of carved Lucite.
Bittar often “reimagines” vintage jewelry designs. For example, the Marcel Boucher “under the sea” design shown below dates to the 1960s. The design is an example of brutalist jewelry featuring a genuine agate stone decorated with a school of fish simulating the way the fish look in nature.
Definition: Brutalist jewelry is defined as huge, eye-catching pieces using natural materials and/or the look of natural materials. The term “brutalist”, beton brut in French, originated from French architect Le Corbusier’s unconventional (and some believed) brutish use of raw concrete in a building design.
The design of the Bittar necklace shown below is a modern version of brutalist jewelry. Like the Boucher it features a large agate disk. The agate is decorated with simulated gold nuggets.
The agate pendant is 2 1/2″ in diameter.
The chain – end to end – measures 32″ and is 14K gold plated brass.
The design of the chain has the look of molten gold. The twisted links vary in size.
The hook is designed to seamlessly blend with the links.
The Brut pendant is a statement piece and a great example of quality non-Lucite Bittar jewelry. Only time will tell if the Bittar “relaunch” jewelry, like this pendant, will be collectible. There is no doubt that this piece exhibits great design and quality manufacturing.
Author’s Prediction:
I believe the Alexis Bittar hand-carved Lucite designs, are now, and will continue to be collectible in the future. The designs are distinctive, original, and durable.
Author’s Recommendations:
Even though some hand-carved pieces are signed ALEXIS BITTAR, look for Lucite pieces signed HAND-CARVED BY ALEXIS BITTAR. Signatures matter in today’s collectible market and will continue to matter in the future.
Be careful to select designs in wonderful condition with good stones and well-plated hardware.
Some Lucite designs use glue to attach decorative metal elements. The glue is starting to yellow over time, so select designs where the glue remains clear or is hidden from view.
Check to be sure the magnetic bracelet clasps work and are securely in place.
Finally, and most importantly, study the designs. Bittar Lucite designs are rich in interesting three-dimensional shapes and luminescent colors. Collect the designs your jewelry “eye” loves.