New Wave: Los Angeles Jewelry Line Spinelli Kilcollin Offers a Dose of Gothic Glamour

A visit to the sun-drenched hilltop abode of Los Angeles jewelry designers Yves Spinelli and Dwyer Kilcollin finds the couple enjoying a leisurely cup of tea while Joni Mitchell wafts from the stereo. Strewn across the breakfast table, their sculptural pieces gleam in the light, offering a dose of gothic glamour to an otherwise breezy Southern California tableau. “When we first started, people would ask, ‘Is that an Ann Demeulemeester?’” says Spinelli with a laugh.

Of course, such cases of mistaken designer identity are on the wane for Spinelli Kilcollin, as influential boutiques like If in New York City and Maxfield in L.A. (Spinelli was once a manager at sister store, Maxfield Bleu) discover the line. Ikram Goldman, owner of prominent Chicago store Ikram, has been a particularly ardent supporter, commissioning several custom orders. “She likes a lot of flash,” says Spinelli, who at Goldman’s request encrusted the popular Galaxy rings (interlocking gold and silver bands that can be stacked together or worn across several fingers) with chocolate, cognac, and white diamonds.

The Ikram order is a harbinger of a more luxe direction for the line, which launched in 2010. Leading the charge are designs like a diamond-studded, rhodium-plated silver Möbius band—which Kilcollin, an MFA student at the University of Southern California’s Roski School, designed on a computer-aided design program—and a set of South Sea–pearl pieces. “We still want to work with this edgy, architectural idea,”says Spinelli. “But we’re ready to incorporate it into a more fine-jewelry setting.”