Left: Swimsuit, Tomas Maier. Necklace and earrings, Anna Sheffield. Right: Tank top, Duskin. Choker and earrings, Anna Sheffield. All other necklaces, stylist’s own.

Photography by Gustavo Marx. Styling by Erin Dixon. Makeup by Ronnie Peterson. Model: Alexa Wilding.
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Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but Kate Cusack prefers to keep more modest company. A jewelry designer, costume sculptor and all-around artist, Cusack favors zippers and Saran Wrap over gems and fine metals. But just because she works with materials that most would find mundane, doesn’t mean that her jewelry is any less exquisite: “There’s an ease to working with something that is not precious. When you work with things that are meant to be thrown away, you just have this freedom and can work with them more creativity,” says the unconventional designer.

Best known now for the intricate cuffs and necklaces she crafts out of zippers, Cusack’s artistic inclinations can be traced back to her childhood. Growing up in Brooklyn, she was influenced by her mother, an illustrator, and father, a graphic designer. Her school day ensembles almost always included a tutu and her favorite “dress-up” shoes, a pair of glittery silver high heels that still serve as a source of inspiration. But the imaginative Cusack’s talents weren’t fully realized until her first year at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where a professor assigned her the task of making a Halloween costume. “I started making clothes out of strange materials like tinfoil or plastic bags, and I realized that that was exciting to me.”

Throughout her years at MICA and her Master’s studies at the Yale School of Drama (where she focused on costume design), Cusack made gowns from books, tablecloths and even sponges. But it was her experiments in Saran Wrap that jumpstarted her career. “I was sitting in my friend’s apartment and he had a role of Saran Wrap on the table. I just started wrapping [it] around my knee, and then I picked it up and it was cone-shaped so naturally, I just put it on my head. Then I thought, ‘Oh this would be really exciting to make a wig out of.’ ” Tiffany’s agreed, and they commissioned Cusack to make five massive Marie Antoinette-esque wigs for a Mother’s Day window display in 2003.

Around this same time, another material caught Cusack’s eye: zippers: “I was working on a community art parade, and we were working in a space that was shared by an antique store. They were throwing away a big slipcover that had been on a couch from the 1960s, and it had this huge zipper that went all around it. It was such an extreme amount of zipper, and I started seeing it as not just a zipper but as this metal faceted object that I could shape into something else.” Not long after this encounter, Cusack created a Chanel-inspired zipper rose pin. Her adventures with the material have continued ever since. Now, Cusack has mastered her craft, coiling, swirling and sculpting zippers into textured baubles. Her necklaces are bibs with an art-deco twists. Her cuffs are bubbling statements that radiate from the wrist and according to the designer, there will soon be zipper earrings as well.

Unexpectedly elegant and wearable, each of the designer’s creations is a kind of marvel. But according to Cusack, these bizarre manifestations of beauty aren’t just accessories, “They’re wearable works of art.”

Earrings and cuffs, Anna Sheffield. Cardigan, vintage. Necklaces, stylist’s own.

Left: Necklaces, stylist’s own. Right: Tank top, Acne. Necklace, Anna Sheffield.