Friendship Jewelry in High Places

A couple of things we love here at Haute Living are friends and haute trends. A return to our youth wouldn’t be so bad either. Take a time machine back to summer camp with handmade, one-of-a-kind jewelry from New York City-based Frieda & Nellie. A product of the ’80s, friendship bracelets are just as nostalgic as rainbow sherbet, arts-and-crafts activities and lemonade stands. Now that you’re all grown up, friendship bracelets are back with charm and sophistication.

Frieda & Nellie founders, designers, and best friends, Stacy Herzog, 24, and Sarah Reid, 29, started the company in 2009 after Herzog returned from a trip to the Galapagos Islands where she was inspired by friendship bracelets. Herzog, who trained as a sportswear designer at Philadelphia University and worked for another jewelry line before Frieda & Nellie, and Reid, a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology who formerly designed sleepwear and lingerie, named the label after their grandmothers, whose vintage costume jewelry they rummage for inspiration.

Upgrade (or, layer) your Silly Bandz with new-meets-old pieces made using 100 percent cotton threads in bubblegum bright colors and Latin American patterns entwined with metals such as silver and gold, woven-in rhinestones and embellished with crystals and whimsical trinkets, usually found scouring flea markets, estate sales and vintage shops. The hand-stitched bracelets and necklaces have recently taken the accessories world by storm being featured in publications including Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, Elle, Cosmopolitan, People and Condé Nast Traveler, and on the wrists of celebs like Corinne Bailey Rae.

Following a collaboration with J.Crew, which debuted on July 29, the hippie chic designs can be found at select J.Crew stores, and at friedaandnellie.com where you can also shop the designers’s vintage finds in their online “jewelry box.” The collection ranges from $130 to $250, and has plenty of personality.

Adorn yourself, or gift a pal with a blast from the past. That’s what friends are for.