New York - October 17, 2007

Double Your Pleasure

Lizzie Fortunato Jewelry

The Wakefield twins’ drama paved your teenage years. But after Kidnapped by the Cult (#82) and Don’t Go Home with John (#90) hit too close to home, the Sweet Valley girls were promptly dropped from your clique.

Feel the void? Meet the next generation of cool: Lizzie and Kathryn Fortunato, the 23-year-old twin wunderkinds behind Lizzie Fortunato Jewels.

Here’s an aesthetic that’s fresh and bold: woven rope earrings; braided necklaces; and breastplates painstakingly sewn from string, beads, tassels, and buttons. Elastic headbands dotted with gems and charms are meant to be worn across the forehead, flapper style. Whalebone chips (from a 19th-century French board game) make dainty pendants. Even guys might wear the Wyoming arrowheads plated in brass and 18-karat gold.

Design-minded Lizzie and business-savvy Kathryn combined their antipodal genius to create LFJ in high school, later selling their designs from their college dorm room. Nowadays they’re legit on the LES.

Known as one step closer to Happily Ever After (#134).

Available at Albertine, 13 Christopher Street, between Greenwich Avenue and Waverly Place (212-924-8515); Shop, 105 Stanton Street, at Ludlow Street (212-375-0304). To see styles, go to lizziefortunatojewels.com.