Katey Brunini, founder of Solano Beach, Calif.-based brand K. Brunini Jewelry, is famous for her audacious, rustic-luxe jewels, which often utilizes unusual materials such as fossilized bone and beach-worn copper (see TZR’s story on her lovely copper collection here).
Now the designer has dropped a collection exclusively for men that echoes the beachy free-spiritedness baked into all of her women’s jewels.
Brunini calls the new collection AeZeus Baldwin, and clearly means business with it—she’s created a completely separate website (aezeus.com) for the collection, on which she writes that AeZeus Baldwin was “born of a desire to have a cohesive space for masculine and gender-neutral creations.”
The offerings on the site are a mix of the kind of exciting one-off jewels we’ve come to associate with Brunini, and a handful of exquisite textile pieces: bejeweled scarves, ascots, and neck bows all made from antique Japanese textiles circa 1890-1940.
“AeZeus Baldwin explores the delicate lines between discarded and cherished, between masculine and feminine to this uncharted place where adventure begins,” writes Brunini. “At a moment of unprecedented creativity in the men’s fashion space, it’s enriching to work with what exists: the historic layers of boros and kimonos. We took the idea of aristocratic ascot and made it street by honoring the past, present, and future: history, craft, and new-world punk.”
The face of the men’s collection online and on social media is Jeffrey Baldwin, a former action sports marketing exec and pro surfer-turned-commentator. And the striking, rugged-looking athlete is the perfect model for Brunini’s rogue-ish men’s pieces, which feature black pearls, moody opals, and motifs such as crosses, dragons, peace signs, and wood grain.
See Baldwin, below, along with a few AeZeus Baldwin pieces we especially love.









Leave a comment