Accessories designer Kara Ross is ready for her red-carpet moment.
In a bid to show starlets and their stylists what she’s been up to for the last five years at her namesake company, Ross is headed to Los Angeles to premiere her first Red Carpet Collection of fine jewelry and handbags.
Ross, 41, who runs her small operation on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, decided to take the leap to the Oscars after encouragement from her friend Mary Alice Stephenson, a former fashion editor.
“Mary Alice Stephenson was a catalyst for it,” Ross said. “She loves the jewelry and urged me to do it.”
Stephenson, a stylist and consultant who is covering Academy Awards style for CNN on Feb. 25, offered creative direction on the line.
Ross will launch the collection next week at the Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles, where she is sharing a suite with ready-to-wear designer and furrier J.Mendel.
The Red Carpet Collection is at a higher price point than Ross’ main jewelry line, using more precious gemstones and more diamonds than in her signature line, which has a day-to-night aesthetic, with ebony link chain necklaces and vintage-inspired rock crystal cocktail rings inlaid with pavé diamonds.
“It’s really a modern, young, sexy, fun collection, focusing more on the diamonds,” Ross said. “It’s much more evening.”
The Red Carpet jewelry takes its inspiration from the color blocking of Piet Mondrian and Mark Rothko, with a pair of earrings made of peridots flanked in a rectangular bezel of pavé diamonds and a carved white opal cuff with 18-karat gold and diamond detail. Prices range from $8,000 to $35,000 at retail. Ross’ other jewelry retails from $1,000 to about $12,000, not including custom pieces.
The bags are similarly linear in design. Strips of crocodile in monochromatic shades of navy blue, loden green or fiery orange are patchworked together on clutches. Each clutch is finished with a gemstone such as faceted citrine or amethyst, retailing for $2,000 to $3,000.
Ross is not alone in being a small accessories firm aiming for some high-wattage celebrity play on the red carpet. Companies like Ocie and Celestina have scored points by dressing Sienna Miller and Drew Barrymore, respectively, in clutches for the Golden Globes in January. While such a feat doesn’t necessarily send sales skyrocketing, it helps get the names of fledgling brands out to consumers.
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For Ross however, the Red Carpet Collection is simply another facet in building her business, which she hopes will quadruple in size to sales of $4 million by 2008.
The company is negotiating with Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus for distribution in some of their stores with handbag deliveries as early as May. The bags were launched exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman in November and the jewelry is sold there, as well.
Ross also hopes to open her own boutique in New York.