ICONS & INFLUENCERS
L.J. Cross: BY Cecilia Morales
LISA JACKSON
T
ory Burch, Vera Wang, Renee Zellweger, Michael J. Fox and West Wing star Allison Janney have all turned to designer Lisa Jackson for her unique design aesthetic. With an eye for edgy design and the drive to make her visions come to life, Jackson has always created beauty. Beginning her career as a private Art and Antiques Consultant, she traveled the globe in search of exceptional art and rare antiques before entering the world of interior design. A few years back, Jackson took a step in a new direction and launched LJ Cross, a fashion-forward line of crosses featuring innovative designs and gemstones. She began designing crosses as a tribute to her late brother Steven, who consistently wore multiple crosses. Jackson has utilized her signature minimalist style and eclectic design sense to create bold statements and unique looks for each piece. Using the highest quality gemstones, each piece reflects a keen sense of modernity while embracing timeless spirituality.
Diamonds for the Beach With the launch of her new “Diamonds for the Beach” collection, available at Saks 5th Avenue, Copious Row in Sag Harbor and Greenwich, Connecticut as well as her boutique at 994 Madison Ave, Jackson hopes to challenge the way peo-
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ple look at fine jewelry. “People sort of look at fine jewelry and they’re just not that comfortable with going outside the box and just wearing it and living with it,” she said. “I have an antithetical way of looking at this.” While the collection itself is made with precious materials, Jackson doesn’t want her customers to be shy with what they wear.“For my first collection for the line I chose to work in rose gold and white gold with white and champagne diamonds,” said Jackson. “Even though I’m working with real gemstones it’s not jewelry for the safe. I see it with white t-shirts, jeans, into night with an organza slip dress and over your favorite caftan. It’s all about just throwing it on and feeling comfortable and not treating it as precious.”
Monogrammed Accessories Jackson’s most popular items, her hand-painted monogrammed accessories, began with her love of text paintings. “I’m a huge fan of text paintings, so we started hand painting messages on t-shirts and totes in the store,” she said. After a while, however, Jackson had an idea. “My besties call me LJ and I sign everything LJ,” she said. I’m like, “oh that’s a little bit of my signature, why don’t I just paint an LJ and put it on the bag and once I did that people were like, ‘I want one of those.’” LJ has now expanded their monogram
collection to pretty much anything you can paint on and of course you can have your own initials on eveything . “Now we have a small off-site artist studio with a couple of painters that come in because the program is just so big,” said Jackson. “First came the monogram in paint and then came the making it in gemstones. It’s new and that’s when Allison Janney just bought the A, we just so happened to have an A. It was white gold with white diamonds and it was the perfect storm kind of thing.”
Pop of Color As for the future, she plans to add a pop of color to her designs. “ For the first time, I’m now working in color for my jewelry, “ she said. “For my fall program I’m working in cornelian and fire opals. I’m just having fun playing with color. I love mixing colors so it’s given me a chance to have this new palette and have a whole new presentation of what we do because it’s really fun and magical. Think about chocolate brown diamonds, sapphires and Peridot in the same piece. Whether it’s an ID bracelet or it’s a bangle embedded in rose gold, still using our same cobblestone technique but changing up the colors a lot.” Ljcrossnny.com