Dainty 14k gold grenades hang from an airy, thin chain. A pistol dangles from a fresh water pearl choker. A gold machete is decorated with a single pearl drop on its blade.
Dubbed “Disarming Weaponry,” jewelry line Family Julz’s first collection is a play on decorative femininity and utilitarian violence, a juxtaposition of the beauty of weaponry to current anti-war simmerings. Launched September 2005, Family Julz is the high-end extension of Bijules NYC, street jewelry best known for its graffiti nameplate necklaces and the model/DJ designer behind them, Jules Kim.
“Family Julz has so much more to say then the street line Bijules NYC,” says designer Jules Kim. “It says that women can be empowered yet protective, that men can be assertively stylish, that America has a real fucked arms problem.”
It’s a study in possible contradictions and tensions, similar to the meaning behind one of Jules’s tattoos. “The Sumi brush writing on my side reads ‘Il faut se preter aux autres et se donner a soi-meme,’” says Jules. “Which translates to ‘It is necessary to give to others in order to gain for yourself.’ Montagne, a French philosopher, wrote this and I live by his words every day of my life.”
That philosophy seems all Family Julz, a line brought to life by a supportive family, but designed for strict individualists. “I asked my friend Frenel [Morris] from Still Life NYC what I should call my new hot ass project,” says Jules. “[I told him] that I was trying to expand to a larger market… and that I could only do that with the help of my family.” Hence Family Julz, though Jules stresses “each wearer is an individual, and their choice to wear my work is what fuels my fire.”
Besides plans to collaborate with other companies and expand Bijules NYC with more accessories, tees, and toys, Jules has got two more tattoos in the works. And with their ironic femme fatality, they also seem sisters of Family Julz: “The new set will be two Ssang Jang Gum, double twin short swords on the back of my forearms,” describes Jules. “These swords were used in the Korean royal court by the female guards who hid the weapons under their sleeves.”
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