Jeff of Alex Streeter Taiwan. visited us in Soho back in 2006 when he moved to New York City.
Recently he translated the interview from his first visit and sent it this way. please enjoy the reading.
This
interview took place back in one November afternoon in 2006. It was my first
year living New York City. Back then, I was New York correspondent for a
Taiwanese fashion social media website. Alex Streeter has always been one of
the jewelry designers that I admire way before my journey begins in NYC. It is
an honor to have the interview with him. I also feel very fortunate to build
friendship with Alex and his team from this great opportunity.
A:
Alex Streeter, J: Jeff
J:
It’s my pleasure to meet you in person and to talk about your work today. I’ve
been fascinated by silver jewelry for a long time since I lived in Taiwan.
Would you like to share you experience from your recent travel to Japan?
A:
It was a very nice trip. Our Japanese partner, CREAM, invited us to the tour
meeting fans in several cities in Japan. It is always a touching moment to see
so many fans to support my creations. This year, there was a fan waited for 7
hours in Tokyo which is unbelievable. Fans always tell me how they feel and how
much they love my works. I feel warm to listen to them and it always feels good
to interact with customers. Oh, by the way, during our break, I got a new
tattoo from a traditional Japanese tattoo master.
J:
It is a very cool design. Is it something you created as well?
A:
Yes, sort of. The design combines my previous works and inspirations. The
traditional Japanese tattoo technique is very impressive. It was really fast
and less painful.
J:
Could you let us know how you started your design journey?
A:
Back in 1966, I lived with some hippies in San Francisco. Some of them were
anarchists, anyway they were special. I was studying in an art school and
selling some wood carving works which turned out to be very popular, so I
started to sell the works to some shops in San Francisco.
Then
I moved to New York City, as an artist, I believed that’s the city I need to
go. At the beginning, I lived with some gypsies who became friends later on. I
learned jewelry knowledge and the skills to manage a shop from them. When I
first opened my own shop, I sold not only silver jewelries, but also leather goods
and apparels designed by myself. Generally, the path was moving towards the direction of jewelry
design. In 1971, I created the ring with heart and wings (Flying heart ring).
The symbol was common among hippies, but I’m the first designer to incorporate
the idea into a physical accessory.
J:
You have been working / living in Soho neighborhood for such a long time.
Compared to Soho’s rapid developments now, do you missing the good old days
here?
A:
Soho was an industrial neighborhood when I first moved in. There used to be
firearms factory here, very hard to imagine. Not many artists lived here at
that time, because it was illegal to live in the factories. Afterwards, some
shops opened with shop owners living inside of their shops. It was lawless back
then; Soho was controlled by Italian mafia. Although it sounds terrible, they
actually made the neighborhood safer, because nobody wanted to mess up with
those Italians. I got to know them eventually. I’m the one they knew as “The Silversmith”. With new city
regulations, artists must have license to reside in Soho. I got my license and
live here since. However, I could see people still tried to live here without
permission in old days. It was a very different era from now.
I’m
very happy to move upstairs. No weird guys knocking doors and it’s much quieter
to focus on my creations. When customers visit me, we can have a coffee and
catch up. This is a very comfortable place now.
J:
Compared to other silver jewelry brands, your brand is very diverse with
several collections. How do you get inspirations from so many different
directions?
A:
I believe the main reason is that I have many different clients all the time.
They all have different thoughts and requests. For example, the eye patch on
the magazine cover, it was purely conceptual. Some inspirations are from arts,
such as my timeless watch. That was inspired by Salvatore Dali’s painting. I
think surrealism definitely has much influence with my works. Sometimes, the requests from fashion
shows can also bring up some good ideas.
Personally
speaking, the biker’s lifestyle and apparel inspire me a lot, so do medieval
magic and my Welsh ancestry. Besides those, Greek sculptures and the devils in
mythology have a lot of impact to my design.
J: Angel Heart ring is
your most famous work in Asia, could you share you idea to design this ring?
A:
As I mentioned, I’m really into the magic stories. I had the ideas to create a
new collection to illustrate devils. Around that time, I was commissioned to
design a ring for a magician character in a movie. That was pretty much how the
Angel Heart ring was created. There is something interesting: when I was
working on the ring design, the film studio instructed me to have a large ring
to show up in the scene. Therefore, I had a gigantic ring for them, but it was
too big to use. Running out of production time, the crew was in panic mode. I
reshaped the ring in a very short time. That becomes the prototype of the
current Angel Heart ring.
J: Japanese rock star,
Hyde, is one of your biggest supporters. Have you ever met him in person?
A: Yeah, I also met his
beautiful wife. He had an idea to have a unique Angel Heart request for me.
He’s really talented.
J: Would you like to share
your recent creations to our readers in Taiwan?
A:
Of course! I’m working on the story based on pirates with skull motif. (Showing
his battle skull ring)
J: Wow, this is really
cool. Skull in the stone.
A:
Indeed, the eyes will follow you no matter what angles you see the stone. That
is a really unique technique to do this.
The
inspiration is from my Welsh ancestry. One of my ancients was a pirate leader
who defeated Spanish and robbed their ships. The Queen even rewarded them for
the victory. The pirates had a nice life after Queen’s rewards, so they were
drinking and gambling all the time. That was also why they didn’t last long.
However, I always want to give tribute to my ancients lifestyle every time the
story crosses my mind.
J: So are you working on a
collection to expand this to maybe a bracelet or other accessories?
A: So far, a ring and a
pendant. I won’t go to far at this moment.
J:
On you website, we can see your experiences to travel around the world. What do
you usually pay attention to when you’re traveling? Are you interesting in the
way people dress and live or architectures and artifacts? How do they affect
your designs?
A:
I’ve been to many places in the states and so many different countries. I
always go to museums in every country to see artifacts, tools, and of course
jewelries. I’m very curious with how people lived and what they wanted to
express at that time. The local architectures always attract my attentions,
especially those minor details. I had strong impressions when I visited Pompei
ruins. In addition, Istanbul was a great experience to see different cultures
in that historical city.
J: Do you mean the
cultures left by the Christians and Muslims?
A:
That’s right. In western world, religion occupies an important element. In
Turkey, I felt the conflicts, but also the beauty of Istanbul. Such an amazing
city!
J: Have you ever visited
Taiwan? If not, please visit this lively country someday.
A:
No, I have not, but I definitely want to visit there. I would like to expand my
business to other countries to share my designs to more people.
J:
Well, Taiwan is such a different country from Japan. Japan is much more
organized. Taiwan, I’d say more easy going and laidback.
A:
This probably means Taiwanese people have open minds to accept new thoughts and
cultures. From your description, that also sounds energetic.
J:
Before I wrap up our conversation, I have to thank you again for giving me this opportunity. I was very nervous before I came to
the studio.
A:
Really? The pleasure is mine. I found new perspectives from my creations. I
learned new things as well. It’s always fun to look back to see the journey
along the way. Come visit us soon sometime.
J: Yes, I will. Thank
you.
