Meet Janie Kruse Garnett | Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Janie Kruse Garnett and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Janie Kruse, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It was 2013, the height of the dainty jewelry era, and I just can’t wear dainty jewelry. So, out of necessity, I suppose. I bang into things and go on safari, muck around in the garden, and I wanted jewelry that was bomb-proof. An early tag-line was “jewelry as strong as the woman who wears it.” I didn’t want the heartache that comes from scratching a piece that a loved one has just given you, you know? So I figured if I designed jewelry like old buildings, that is, to only get better with age, then people could take delight in “antiquing” their jewelry themselves.

So the jewelry started because I needed substantial jewelry for myself, and that kind of snowballed. From there, I wanted lovely scented candles in reusable ceramic coffee cups that looked like old mustard pots, and I couldn’t find any, so I made some. And then I wanted silk scarves that were Hermes-y but less serious, because I am a rumpled person who is perpetually lost, so I made a series of scarves that had Rome, London, and Paris mapped out with little bugs on delightful bars, museums, and places, like a guide book, but à la the escape maps the OSS gave paratroopers in WW2. And then with so many friends getting married and registering for outrageously expensive silver plated items, well that ticked me off, so I went to make solid silver tableware that was a bit more charming and personal than ye olde plain serving dish, *and* could be melted down in case of revolution. And then most recently, bed linens. I couldn’t find any sturdy percale bedsheets that had the happy chintz-y vibe of my childhood but in more androgynous colors, and were made in Italy rather than through child labor in some less meticulous country, and so here we are.

Essentially, I go down rabbit holes for things I want for myself, and then due to Minimum Order Quantities, I end up selling the surplus, if you will. I am my first customer.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Well, some things are easy and some things are hard. It is easy to cocoon in my world for weeks and focus on carving the perfect swath of whatever for a left earring, sometimes it is perfect the first time, and sometimes it takes 40 attempts. It is hard to budget time and switch from being my little artistic hedgehog to being social and seeing my friends, which is important! Because if I don’t refill that cup, then I have nothing to give my hedgehog phase. It is very lonely, and sometimes that is hard, but my dad would say about rainy days that they were a “pleasant melancholy” and I think that the isolation is actually part and parcel of artistic endeavor. I do wish often that I had a boss, or even a nanny, to tell me what I should focus on next, rather than having to make that unknowable decision myself.

How I am different – the amount of thought that I put into each piece, though I say so myself, is quite unusual. A lot of designers, especially in jewelry, will just whack a big stone on a band and call it a day. I am from the school of Palladio and Inigo Jones, where the Fibonacci sequence comes into play and the Golden Ratio – and things need to harmonize, *as well as* flatter the wearer. The jewelry and scarves have to make you feel like your best self, even if you’re in sweatpants. So the bands are shaped to slim the finger, the earrings are designed to go *up* the ear, complimenting your jawline. The scarves take months and months as I work on flower placement to ensure that no matter how you wrap it around your neck, it looks jauntily unfussed; that the colors flatter every skin tone and eye color; that the palate “goes” with most winter coats. The candlesticks are designed to be low profile to suite modern day apartment living, where you want to see people’s faces across the table rather than having them blocked with candelabra.

I am most excited about my work for LES Collection. Lauren told me to do whatever my heart desired, which is almost unheard of, and let me go hog wild with my 1920s fever dreams about diamonds and rock crystal with bronze. Bronze is such a living metal – it patinas differently depending on how you interact with it (acids and salts will create a bluey green verdigris. Human hands will continue to polish it gold like doorknobs) and diamonds are *never* paired with so humble a metal. To be able to match the highest of all gemstones with the most industrial of all metals has me giddy, I was basically non-verbal for a few months. I got to make shapes from my childhood – like twisted paper screws that you use to light a fire? We made those in bronze as serving sticks, and dotted a few diamonds along the handle to glitter in candlelight. Why should diamonds just be for wearing, why not have them on your table for all to see and play with! And then the whiteness of the diamonds against the darker bronze, the contrast is so potent, I love it. And this was such a gamble! Most people would have asked me to stick to silver, or laughed when I asked to put diamonds in tableware. This kind of patronage and encouragement is from a bygone era, but this is how memorable, generational art is made – with free rein.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
WELL! I would base us at the Crosby Street Hotel, obviously. Incredible, cozy rooms, delicious food, amaze cocktails with a wee little terrace and occasionally Diane Keaton. For the first half of the week, we would focus on Manhattan proper. The Frick (the 70th St location that is currently closed but hey, this is a theoretical), the Cloisters, the NY Botanical Garden, their train show if this is Winter, their orchid show is also a delight! If in season, the opera, the ballet, and like, maybe “Funny Girl” if only to go to Sardis beforehand to have a Baked Alaska. A walk around the West Village, obviously, ending up at The Commerce Inn for literally anything on their menu, it is beyond delicious. For food in general – Bar Italia, Cafe Altro Paradiso, Lucien, Indochine of course, Raouls, Omen for sushi on a chill night. Many evenings would finish at Bemelmans.

Then the second half of the week would be Brooklyn-focused! The BK Botanic Garden, especially if their light exhibit is up. The BK Museum is incredible. Walks along the Promenade, and down Prospect Park West, it’s like Fifth Avenue meets Kensington, London! And I say this as someone born in Manhattan who lived in London for three years, it’s beyond beautiful. Dumbo House if you are a member, Cecconi’s for the same view but one floor down. Lowlands is aaamaaazing New Orleans food in the smallest restaurant, perfect for just apres the BK Museum. Chez Moi and Colonie on Atlantic Avenue are delicious as well, and then Henry Public for a cozy drink in an English-vibing pub.

For excitement, I am all about people watching nowadays, so walking around and having cocktails and then heading to bed by 10pm would do it for me. However I did recently go to a lovely rave in Sunset Park in a place called “Soccerroof” so that’s a solid option for anyone still in that phase of life.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family, “Little Women,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” the Burns women, and Abby Raphel!

My family has been derangedly supportive from the get-go, and and are always cheerleading me on, no matter how aesthetically Quixotic the idea.

Little Women and TCoN gave me my “vibe” – those books were just so visually rich, they inform most of what I design.

Amelia and Emma bring English sensibilities to what I do and remind me to balance being myopically detail oriented with confident execution.

And Abby Raphel for being my Professional Older Sister who guided me through the Scaries of my 20s like a modern Artemis.

Website: www.janiekrusegarnett.com

Instagram: @janiekrusegarnett

Other: For insider info on preorders and drops, text “JOIN” to +1 (888) 551-1567

Image Credits
Natalie Black did the last two photos with candles, for LES Collection. The rest are me.