A pioneer in alternative bridal jewelry, this designer has been creating pieces for celebs for decades.
Always ahead of her time, Karen Karch was designing alternative bridal rings in the early ’90s before the term was coined. Her 30-plus years in business have taken her from New York to Los Angeles and back to New York. She thrives on the energy and vibration of downtown Manhattan where she lives, works and is influenced by the creativity of the street style that surrounds her and the different decades in which she has created an unconventional imprint on fine jewelry. Karch describes her inspiration as “a long-standing obsession with the push and pull of contradictions which I have always woven into my pieces.”
“My jewelry juxtaposes glamour and grit, darkness and light, polished and distressed finishes and always, strong yet feminine silhouettes and styles,” she continues.
Throughout her collections, the diamonds or gemstones take center stage, she explains, “but my weathered rough-hewn texture in the metal plays a supporting role.”
Karch began her career as a bench jeweler. The tactile interest in her designs combined with rich and often beautiful white and natural-colored diamonds, vibrant rubies and other precious gems created engagement rings and wedding bands that had a rock-and-roll vibe and an edginess that was appealing to the movement toward individuality. Early on, they attracted brides who dared to be different and wanted jewelry that would challenge the status quo. They still do.
A Push in the right direction
“When I started out, I sold to some of the finest stores from Barneys New York and Japan to Fred Segal on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles and Portland’s Twist and Twist online,” she shares.
“I felt somehow I lost myself and my aesthetic along the way. In an effort to continue my success and grow my wholesale business, I began designing what the stores were asking for —pieces that were more delicate and refined. In an effort to regain my point of view, I opened my own retail shop, then named Push [because] I wanted to push the boundaries of what I was doing,” Karch explains. “I used my shop as a test market to learn what the end consumer really wanted. More fashion-conscious storefronts opened in the downtown New York City neighborhood, renamed Nolita, where my shop resided. This was pre-internet; people would get together with friends and make a day of shopping. It was very social, and I worked one on one with my clients. This created a very strong loyalty and word-of-mouth spread.”
Recognizing her revolutionary approach to bridal, Karch and Push were written up in many bridal magazines and general-interest publications. Time Out’s Valentine’s Day article, “When Push Comes to Love,” brought the designer many clients and celebrities, including actor Vincent D’Onofrio, who purchased a custom wedding set, and Ethan Hawke, who ordered a custom ring for Uma Thurman. Becoming known as the designer of Thurman’s ring established Karch as the go-to place for alternative bridal. Other famous clients included David Bowie, Courtney Love, and Meg Ryan.
Constantly adapting
Custom-design commissions arose and continue to be a significant part of her work today. During the pandemic, when she realized how much she was selling on the internet and through social-media channels, she closed her brick-and-mortar shop (which had moved to Gramercy Park) and revamped her online shop. She met clients through Zoom and continued to sell to her select retailers.
There are certain styles that are immediately identifiable with Karch. One is the Tiara ring, which launched in 1999, and its many incarnations that are still her best sellers today.
“It all started when a custom client, a textile designer, brought in a parcel of small pink diamonds with the request to use as many of these diamonds as possible on the top of her finger. I began creating configurations to move upward and to drape downward on the finger, at first not realizing I was creating tiara-like shapes,” she explains. “Tiaras for the finger then became an obsession and I traveled to London in 2002 to see the Tiara exhibit at the Victorian & Albert Museum for more inspiration. Our brides wanted two rings for their engagement ring, a tiara to crown their solitaire or three-stone ring, then a second tiara to go on the underside where you would wear your wedding band.”
Each of the designs had Karch’s stamp of style — rugged, textured metal that would offset the gemstones — a tough and tender, romantic yet rough-hewn feeling that Karch evolved by mixing elements. She sets larger center stones in yellow and rose gold and uses colored gemstones with smaller diamond accents, and vice versa.
Of her most recent designs, she shares, “We are currently witnessing the city coming back to life, which is super inspiring. In certain neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, it feels like the ’90s all over again: the grit and the glamour, the creativity and rebounding after what seemed lost.” The designer is currently working on a new collection, which she hopes will “echo the nuances, edginess, beauty and strength of New York City.”
Main image: Karen Karch, jewelry designer. Photo: Karen Karch.
