austin fashion week
AFW designer spotlight: Cristen Guest of Rene Guest Jewelry credits her singlemom for inspiration
Cristen Guest, owner and designer of Rene Guest Jewelry, is the prime example of an Austinite who turned her local trade into an international trademark. Her jewelry will be featured tonight at the Dress Shop at 6 p.m., alongside the fall collections of Dress Shop and 81 Poppies.
Guest's fall collection features large statement pieces: geometric glass structures that boast intricate feathers, vintage lace and recycled copper. In vibrant fall colors, Guest's pieces are both fresh and antique, simplistic and sensual. Her high-end jewelry is now in high-demand at famed Austin boutiques like Luxe Apothetique, The Garden Room, Maya Star and Estilo. Her storefront in East Austin hosts a wide collection of luxurious treasures, including custom designed jewelry for brides who want specific pieces to match their gowns and bridesmaids.
What has now become a luxury jewelry line began with much more humble beginnings. Guest grew up learning how to create art from unlikely places. She explains, "Growing up with a single working mother, I learned early how to make something beautiful out of random and seemingly insignificant resources. Our entire house was a collection of furniture from my grandfathers rent houses, hand-me downs from family and friends, as well as home made bedding, curtains and clothing. Somehow, Mom managed to create a comfortable, aesthetically pleasing home on a tight budget."
Growing up with a single working mother, I learned early how to make something beautiful out of random and seemingly insignificant resources.
She learned to look at objects differently; not just as objects, but as inspiration for re-creation. Guest and her mom "recycled just about everything [they] possibly could and made it fun." Those lessons in her early years not only affected her lifestyle since, but also her design style today. Already an innovative entrepreneur having designed and sold hemp necklaces to classmates in middle school, she continued practicing her passion while studying at the University of Texas. In addition to majoring in Human Ecology and Business, she "apprenticed under a very talented jeweler named Wayne Bonham in the Renaissance Art Market on the Drag."
Guest started her own business in 2001, at which point she was a sophomore in college. While in the beginning she had to work two jobs to support herself (doing everything from bar tending and waiting tables to event planning and assisting naturopathic doctors), now she works full time with a "growing team of talented females working together to expand into new markets and create new ideas."
These ideas—and her aesthetic—are indeed always expanding. Guest always creates new pieces with "color, design, and resourcefulness in mind," challenging herself to create runway caliber accessories while "creating the least amount of impact on the environment and pocket book." But most importantly, she works to constantly push the envelope, whether that be by way of size, material or concept. She says that at the beginning of each collection, "I am largely directed by materials at hand. Before I start a new collection, I shop the International Gem Shows, the colors of the season I am designing for and can often be influenced by art I admire, music that touches me and whatever I am feeling at the time. Creating these one of a kind glass pieces relates to capturing a moment in time... the beauty of the present that is so rapidly changing before our eyes."
In 2009, she worked with a group of women who encompassed one such beautiful moment. They taught her stained glass techniques that enlightened her "inherent appreciation for blending treasures of the past with modern style." These women inspired her latest collection. Now, she and her collaborative team "collect feathers, microscope slides, antique lace and recycled copper to create brilliantly colored eye catching glass pieces." They also look for "unique stones, mostly lead by texture, color and clarity" to mix in with their hand forged metal designs.
Guest does not just strive to capture the beauty of Austin. A global thinker and social entrepreneur, Guest sees an even bigger future for her company. In addition to growing her business, she plans to have Rene Guest Jewelry "develop a partnership project using the jewelry as a link between the company and women in various developing areas of the world."
She elaborates, "I hope to launch our first project in 2012, and begin raising money and awareness this fall with our next collection. The idea is to find communities of women that have a strong connection to their cultural traditions, in art and resources ... travel there and co-design a collection primarily using their resources that we will purchase and then employ them to help produce."
Guest wears many hats; and as a woman in charge of both sustaining a sound business and striving for constant creativity, she has to. But this woman's ever-changing vision of how to craft wearable beauty from already beautiful resources is inspiring. For this reason, one assumes, she is rightly featured at Austin Fashion Week—a paramount example of how persistent determination, unique talent and social innovation yield clear success.