​Not all the activities and interests of the New York Fall/Winter 2025 collections were on the runways, or even clothing, for that matter. Jewelers Alexis Bittar, L’Enchanteur, and Cadar took the chance to enter the spotlight with interesting and creative ways to engage their audiences with their brands.

Alexis Bittar

The Brooklyn-based designer returned to his downtown New York roots with an impressive live art installation in the birthplace of New York performance art, PS 122 on First Avenue in the East Village. The designer—whose director ambition and talents have been documented in his Webby-award-winning Instagram featuring the irresistible, yet politically incorrect character, Margeaux—used the occasion to imagine another heroine.

Inside the vast room of the since-expanded art center, the jewelry designer-slash-creative director imagined a dystopian future where AI bots attend to a central character stuck in the memory of her once glamorous life. (While she could be the protagonist, Bittar retorted that technology was the main character.)

“It’s slightly dystopian. She is in her suburban home, which hasn’t changed since the 80s, but now it’s the future, and there are these five robotic AI bots. She is isolated but content, and she also loses her mind. So she sits in front of the mirror all day trying on baubles. The jewelry is the nostalgia. It kind of brings it back to this moment of her life,” Bittar told FashionNetwork.com.

However, the piece also explored the eras that influenced Bittar and a subject he tackled in his campaigns well before anyone addressed any of the isms in fashion.

“I’m always fusing different eras, like the thirties and eighties, when making new designs. It’s just how I think; it’s like a collapsed era in my mind. I also love the narrative of talking about ageism, which is also a general theme for me,” he added.

While a younger version of the woman appeared at different times for the ongoing performance that lasted three hours—it continued as if on a loop—the focal point of the stage was the woman sitting almost naked in front of a mirror, trying on jewelry and handbags, which along with display cases was how Bittar showed key new styles such as a clutch bearing scissors, a curved and ridged Lucite handle on another clutch, an embellished choker made from organically shaped Lucite pieces, and large gold and crystal chandelier earrings.

L’Enchanteur

Twin sisters Dynasty and Soull Ogun of L’Enchanteur, a talisman-based jewelry and design collection, recently won the 2024 CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund, a godsend to emerging designers as it helps to infuse some cash into small independent brands. To celebrate and get their message and craft out, the duo presented an installation of their wares, which span various mediums. Entitled “K.O.D.E: Relic”, in a nod to where “time and magic entwine”, the collection explores objects with ‘mystical meanings’ as, in fact, relics, no matter how ancient they are or are not.

In the Tasting Room of the Scott Avenue Associates building, which fosters young creative endeavors in a warehouse desert-deep in Brooklyn, the sisters displayed a centerpiece of multi-medium art that ranges from more traditional jewelry, to sculptural gold-plated art pieces.

The idea of relics focused on “unlocking keys to the dormant magic within us all,” so a focal point was a key. FashionNetwork.com was given a tour around the effigy, which was comprised of bespoke jewelry, garments, eyewear, sculptures, textiles, and furniture—each piece crafted with the highest-quality materials, including brass, Sterling Silver, 24K and 18K gold, diamonds, grown crystalline, gold leaf, cotton, wool, and wood.

The key design, which resembles an antique style, contains an ear shape within its bow, which is the collection’s symbolic core.

“It’s about inner listening. The key opens everything regarding inner listening, and when you listen to the real depth of your soul, that unlocks everything,” said Soull, while guiding FashionNetwork.com through the smorgasbord of design display. It was also an homage to their mother.

Beyond the metal and gemstone work, which included a gong and brush among more traditional jewelry pieces, the pair created or conceived everything. This included knit masks, ceremonial robes made from traditional fabrics from Nigeria or Dominica, where their father and late mother were originally from, respectively, and brand motifs turned into furniture.

Additional highlights included a customized Nike Air Max pair as part of the brand collaboration, a new leather clutch bag, the “Big Bucks” bag, a nod to leather pouches filled with money held to the body by a wristlet (though hopefully, the ladies have their prize winnings in the bank), and a series of crowns that pay homage to family, culture, and Brooklyn.

“A Nigerian tradition inspires the masks, and the crowns made from plated gold are made from baby-curls hairstyles, hair rollers, hair pins and nameplates of famous people from Brooklyn such as Barbara Streisand, Marisa Tomei, Biggie [Smalls], Jay-Z, Little Kim, Foxy Brown, etc.,” said Dynasty. Soon, this pair can also include themselves in that line-up.

Cadar

Wrapping up the whole week was the fine jewelry brand Cadar. It was also celebrating its 10th anniversary by inviting its VIP clients to its Manhattan showroom to peruse its latest pieces and for a fashion seminar. Entitled “Why New York Fashion Week Matters,” the talk-host industry veteran and personal friend of the brand, Godfrey Deeny, dissected the week’s highlights to an engaged audience.

Pre-chat while enjoying passed hors d’oeuvres and champagne as they viewed some of the brand’s signature pieces, which include styles that contain movement, such as articulated gold tubes and diamonds on the ‘Fur’ group and the hexagon shape interpreted in inventive ways. For example, Cadar’s B Home Choker Tennis Necklace, crafted in 18K Yellow Gold and custom-cut hexagon-shaped white diamonds, totaling 9.22 carats.