Crown Jewelry

New Era/Gabriel Urist Chain: A cap manufacturer’s evolution into a fashionable brand.

While it may not seem obvious at first, there’s something almost inevitable about the creation of a $525 platinum baseball-cap pendant necklace. Although, to sell at that price, it can’t be just any necklace, and it can’t be based on just any baseball cap: it requires collaboration — something that both brands and artists have become increasingly interested in. Thus the Gabriel Urist New Era pendant necklace offers not so much a strange aberration as a small case study of how such projects can come about….

Continue reading at the NYT Magazine site by way of this no-registration-required link.

Related links:

• Staple Design
• Gabriel Urist
• Pendant image via Hypebeast
• Freshness coverage of New Era flagship store opening

Also worth reading in the NYT Mag this week: Michael Pollan’s lucid and well-informed overview of the pros and cons of Wal-Mart getting into the “organics” business.