As a child, Marissa Alperin designed jewelry — plastic beaded baubles, friendship bracelets, safety pin bangles — which she sold at the annual Atlantic Antic street fair in her native Brooklyn, N.Y. But the hobby faded, as childhood fascinations do, and Alperin went on to study international business. She then worked as a translator, first in Washington and then back in New York, where she rediscovered her love for jewelry. After studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology, she launched her collection in 2002, setting up shop — literally, both studio and store — in a Brooklyn Heights building owned by her grandparents.
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Alperin has quietly built a reputation for colorful, ultrafeminine jewelry, ranging from $80 for silver studs to $10,000 for a platinum, diamond and sapphire bracelet. Now, she’s expanding into wholesale. But she won’t abandon the personal touch. To wit: Her Sweet Pea necklaces stem from a peapod charm she created for her son, while her silver and topaz cuff links were inspired by a sea urchin she found while on vacation in Mexico. As for the candy-colored rings with extra gemstones embedded in the prongs: “That’s [the setting of] my own engagement ring that I designed,” Alperin notes. “I told my husband to just give me the diamond.”