The Lightness of Kazuko

I am always happy when we receive new pieces by Kazuko.  They have a lovely sense of lightness, the  gold seems spun magically around the crystals and semi precious stones.  I adore our new collection of Kazuko which has the transparency and lightness of sea glass...

Kazuko 'sea glass' pendants wrapped in gold

Buy the Kazuko pendants here.

love, kisses and One on One Healing Pendants, Juliana

Charming! A New Collection of Kazuko just in at RARE vintage!

A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call from someone wishing to part with a collection of Kazuko jewelry.  They were all given as a gift by Kazuko to our client and it is a delightful collection of pendants - mostly hearts, wrapped in gold wire.  

Get ready to be charmed!

Kazuko: The Meaning of Beauty

If you are a long time reader of our RARE vintage blog, you will know that in addition to our wonderful collection of Tina Chow jewelry, we have also had really wonderful pieces by the jeweler and artist Kazuko.

I was thrilled to acquire this collection for RARE vintage which I think is particularly outstanding and especially beautiful.   I am very excited to see a ring that the owner of this collector has - alas she is not parting with it : ( but of course I don't blame her : )

What I love about Tina Chow and Kazuko is that their pieces were not only beautiful to look at and to wear but they were meaningful beauty.  They were meant to be talisman to the people who bought them and there is not one person whom I have bought the pieces from or sold them to who has not appreciated this magical quality about them...

Detail...

Kazuko available at RARE vintage

Kazuko: A Good Egg

I have absolutely and madly fallen in love with Kazuko.  If you have been reading the RARE vintage blog or shopping our storefront on 1stdibs, you will have seen our latest collection and will know that I am not the only one who has fallen with Kazuko by how quickly the pieces sell.

Our new piece is a large size pendant in clear crystal quartz and beautifully wrapped in gold wire.  We have nicknamed it 'The Egg' because of its shape.  And what a good egg it is.

For more information or to purchase, please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

RARE vintage Weekend Style and Inspiration: Kazuko and the Angel

One of our wonderful blog readers sent me this image of Kazuko jewelry hanging from an angel and I thought it was perfectly heavenly and inspiring.  Thank you for the image!

One of One: Kazuko: The Silver Collection

Part Two in a Three Part Series on a Single Owner Collection of Kazuko.  To see Part Two click here and Part One click here.

Kazuko is well known and collected for her gold wire wrapped crystals and stones but she also worked in sterling silver.  I do not believe that the silver pieces were sold at Barneys but if anyone knows for sure, I would love to hear from you!  

The silver pieces have a beautiful ethereal lightness.  I love them as much as I do the gold and I think you will too.

Another view

 

One of One: Kazuko: The Gold Collection

Part Two in a Three Part Series on a Single Owner Collection of Kazuko

To see more Part One of our Kazuko collection or to read more about the unique Kazuko click here.

It is interesting to see where fate takes us.  I never would have known that my early passion for fashion and for vintage fashion in particular would eventually lead to a store on 57th Street but here I am and loving every moment of what I do.  Kazuko collected antique textiles and beads and then she began making scarves from her collection of fabrics and adorning them with the beads she collected.  And from there she started wrapping stones with silk threads and when the silk did not hold the stones she began using gold wire.  And from there began a career that would take her signature jewelry to Barneys and for years that jewelry greeted everyone who came into Barneys. 

You say Artist, Kazuko says Artisan.

"I wanted to do something from my hand and from my heart" Kazuko said.  The first jewelry she created for Barneys were single quartz crystals wrapped in gold to be pinned on.  Then she started doing hearts wrapped in gold.  "Barneys is not a heart store" said Judy Collinson, executive vice president of Barneys. "But she kept bringing them back" and Barneys did become a 'heart store'.

For more information or to purchase please email info@rarevintage.com

One of One: The Unique Kazuko: The Scarves

u-nique

Adjective

Being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else

Or the opposite of mass produced luxury fashion or fast fashion.  You and I are drawn to vintage because of its uniqueness and because we want to have something that no one else has.  I think in a global economy that is the definition of true luxury.

This is Part One in a Three Part Series on  a Single Owner Collection of Kazuko

Kazuko, a Japanese born artist and jeweler, created unique pieces of textiles and jewelry by her own hand.  She sourced the crystals, the semi precious stones and the antique beads herself.  She wrapped her jewelry in thin wisps of gold or silver wire or more boldly in a web of heavier gold wire.  Each piece was wrapped by hand with the wire gently holding or encasing the stones.  Sometimes with bits of amber, coral, turquoise interlaced on the wire and adding a note of joy and color to each piece.  

Pieces were often accompanied with a note written by Kazuko on black Japanese paper and in gold ink Kazuko would write: One of One Healing Sculptures.  One of one meaning each piece was unique.

In the early 1980s Kazuko began making "healing scarves" made from pieces of antique textiles, silk kimonos and silk tulle and to which she attached crystals and beads.  She famously made the white tulle bridal veil edged in 1930s mercury glass rice beads for Madonna's "Like a Virgin" video.  

I was so excited to be shown this small, beautiful and intimate collection of Kazuko jewelry in silver, gold and most extraordinarily: The scarves! from someone who was good friends with her.  But I think Kazuko would be delighted to know that the jewelry she created from her heart and her hands which meant so much to her and to those she created it for, are making a new generation of collectors happy - and safe whether or not they or you believe, as Simon Doonan called Kazuko "The crystal packing Mama's" ideas of good vibes and the powers of crystals to heal and protect.  It's not bad to know that Kazuko has still got our back.

A rare mid 1980s Kazuko healing scarf made from antique kimono, circa 1900s African beads and 17th century trading beads:

Kazuko mid 1980s healing scarf made from antique silk kimono and hand beaded.

To purchase or for more information please email info@rarevintage.com

Oh It's Magic: Kazuko

Oh, oh, oh it's magic, you know
Never believe it's not so
It's magic, you know
Never Believe, it's not so
-Magic by Pilot 1974

(and redone fabulously by Selena Gomez or so my daughter says - alright!  Truth be told, I have heard Selena Gomez's version and I actually like it better then the original. ) 

In my first post on the jeweler Kazuko I referred to the magic of her pieces.  And in speaking about Kazuko recently with two people who knew her very well, the word 'magic' came up again and again.  What was it that was so magical about her jewelry?  Was it that each piece was unique? That she had so much of herself invested in each piece that she created?

Here is an excerpt from a tribute that Simon Doonan from Barneys wrote for the New York Observer after she passed away:

'One steamy afternoon I was accosted on the sidewalk outside the Barney windows on Seventh Avenue.  The accoster was on this occasion a little fairy shrouded in black Yohji silks.  She told me her name was Kazuko Oshima, but everyone called her Kazuko.  She was a one-namer.

Kazuko said she liked the display, but felt it needed a veil.  From her purse, as if by magic, (there is that word again!!), she pulled out a massive chunk of silk tulle, the edges of which she had painstakingly stitched with rock crystals.  She waited outside the windows while I shooshed her creation over the head of the mannequin.  Voila!  We both agreed it was sugoi ("wow").'

After I was shown this substantial necklace, which was made especially for the original owner and was never available at Barneys, with its contrast of rough and smooth, all I could say was, oh, oh it's magic!

Kazuko gold wire wrapped crystal necklace and semi precious stones necklace.  

Why don't you wear it with... a flowing Madame Gres ensmeble a la Rosamond Bernier?

1970s Madame Gres at RARE vintage

Rosamond Bernier in Madame Gres and an oversized necklace in 1968:

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