The foldout table in front of me is covered from side to side with bright colored jewels and gold metals, sparkling when the dim lighting catches it at a certain angle. Who knew that BU Central could double as a classy kiosk by night? These jewels are not the typical designs you could find at the local mall, but resemble something more to what you would find displayed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art or The Louvre in Paris. This is art, and the artist holds herself poised as if she were the Mona Lisa reincarnated. The artist sits behind the table twirling her wavy, long brown hair smiles, crinkling her blue eyes as she gestures to a particular set of earrings. The long gold chain dangling from her pale neck and the gold bangles spotted with amber and brown stones accentuate her almond shaped eyes. The bangles clink together, sounding like wind chimes, as she runs her hand over the earrings. Tilting her head, she raises her eyebrows in a humorous way that would make even the most pessimistic person smile. She laughs, and her slow and drawn out voice fills the room. The earrings she points to contain shapes of gold, covered in dark purple stones that are attached by gold twining. The vendor next to her with large glasses and chic, black hair exclaims, “Oh my god, you could so pull those off.” The brunette looks at the earrings once more, and then looks at me with a sly grin saying, “Trust me, she wouldn’t lie to you.” She thumbs them, offering me to try them on. “Come on, the least you can do is try on some jewelry before I tell you my deepest darkest secrets on my passion for beading,” says Hilary, the founder and president of HMR Designs.
Hilary Rappaport is a force to be reckon with, and at 19 years old has multiple internships and her own jewelry line under her belt. Being born and raised in New York City would seem like the perfect environment for fashion inspiration, but Rappaport says her true beginnings came from simple family vacations to Martha’s Vineyard.
“My favorite day of the vacation was always the day my mom would take my sister and I to the bead store and we’d spend the day making jewelry. So, when I saw a bead store was opening up in my town I immediately jumped on the opportunity to work there,” said Rappaport. She smiles gently, and begins to reminisce on the past and what led her to this exact spot.
Rappaport’s first experiences with the bead business came from apprenticing at a local bead store. “I had to go through a lot of training because bead stores have a very diverse range of customers. You can get a designer who needs specific advice on colors and history of stones, or a mother coming in with her children on a rainy day. I just fell in love with every aspect of making jewelry and started to extend my knowledge by taking metals classes at a local community college.”
As she learned her trade, in both the designing and business aspects, Rappaport realized that this passion could be turned into a source of profit. In her senior year of high school, she decided to start her own jewelry line with the title of her initials HMR.
“I am planning to change the name in the future but I’m waiting for it to come to me. No rush,” Rappaport says and laughs loudly.
She is suddenly distracted by a girl with long brown hair and a bounce in her step, that walks in and shouts, “HMR Designs. Here I am to show my support.” The girl smiles and rushes around the table to hug Rappaport fiercely. “Look at this stuff.” She turns to me to emphasize her support and says, “I mean aren’t you just in love with it? Look at these bangles. Aren’t they just gorgeous?” Rappaport leans back in her plastic chair, looking content with herself. She is confident in her creations, and this exudes from the slow smile that gradually reaches to her eyes as Hashinovsky continues to endorse her friend’s jewelry with full force.
Rappaport talks animatedly with her friend about the day and the multiple customers who have stopped by. She is in her element. Her joy for visiting with her friends is obviously as strong as her passion for jewelry, because she seems to forget that I am present. Hashinovsky and other customers are close with Rappaport, and come to support their friend’s endeavor. Rappaport is a social butterfly, dabbling in various conversations with each customer. She doesn’t ask the standard, “Is there something I can help you with?” Instead she focuses on the people themselves, because everyone knows that a female is more likely to talk about herself than anything else. The customers look touched and more than happy to recount their day or relationship problems with Rappaport as she listens intently to their accounts. After handing over a pretty pink package to a customer, she turns abruptly to me and says, “Now where were we?”
Although Rappaport seems as if she needs to be constantly moving or redirecting her attention from one subject to another, she expressed how making jewelry is her own personal form of Adderall.
“Not only is it my passion but it’s my therapy. I can literally sit for hours on end designing jewelry.” This appears to be true, as the table full of intricately designed earrings, bracelets, and necklaces indicate. I notice that many of the pieces are beautifully crafted metals. Rappaport says she took a couple of metal making classes at local community colleges to harness this talent. She obviously did her homework. She has a look of an epiphany and says she forgot to mention an amazing internship at a place called CharmandChain.Com, which is an online costume jewelry company based in Soho.
“Basically, this jewelry company has the majority of pieces worn on the red carpet and on popular TV show sites like Gossip Girl. This job was a wonderful experience because I got to do a lot of work that would not normally have been given to me as an intern in high school,” says Rappaport.
Clearly not every teenager has had the opportunity to learn firsthand with a reputable source how to take inventory, write blogs, and conduct designer interviews. Rappaport is deceiving in every form. Her humble attitude and young appearance wouldn’t portray the savvy entrepreneur and fashion connesuir within. Upon hearing this, she throws back her head and laughs loudly. Then turns back to me with a more somber look, and expresses how she wouldn’t have made it this far without the complete support of her family.
“My parents are the kind of people who always told me to be who I wanted to be and do what I want to do with my life. When I got a job at the bead store in high school they were so happy for me because it was something I went after on my own and achieved on my own,” says Rappaport.
Her mother is her biggest fan, and shares the hobby with her daughter when she assists in picking out new beads and designs in the city. She smiles and exclaims, “She wants to be the manager of my first store, and I promise you she will be.”
Rappaport picks up the earrings in front of her and puts them near my ears, examining my appearance with them on. She nods and says, “You could definitely pull these off.” I look down at the earrings that contain large turquoise stones with long gold chains dangling from them. The turquoise sets off the olive tones in my skin, and draws attention to my face rather than just my outfit. This is art at its finest. It has the capability to show the true beauty of a person and be on its own, an asset that not every jewelry piece can accomplish.
Rappaport nods in approval as she watches me admire my reflection in the mirror, and tries to put into words what this endeavor really is.
“My favorite jewelry designers are Elizabeth Fortunato, Dana Kellin, and Alexis Bittar. All of these designers have extremely different styles but I love that they are all women who found passion in creating jewelry that really looks like wearable art. I don’t believe jewelry should be something to compliment an amazing top or dress. Instead, I believe jewelry is the statement in itself, and the ability to express my art as something someone can wear has been an incredibly rewarding experience,” she says genuinely. This girl is clearly beyond her years in maturity, and knows where she is going and that she can achieve it all on her own. College is just a minor detour to an already promising future.
Although she does want to be involved in fashion for a career, she isn’t completely sold on relying on her jewelry line as her main source of income. “I’m worried that if I make my jewelry line my entire income, I’ll never be able to able to enjoy it the way I do now. I worked with a lot of artists at the Beadstore in high school and they were constantly telling me about their struggles to maintain a comfortable life and I’m just very realistic about the life of an artist. I never want to resent my art, it’s my passion and I always want it to stay that way. I decided to pursue a major in business so that no matter what job I end up in, I can continue to make jewelry on the side and hopefully make enough money to open a store in Manhattan,” says Rappaport. She looks for a while at the table filled with her creations, and looks back at me to see if I understand her aspirations. This girl is doing well and obviously doesn’t need any approval, and yet she still cares.
An observer asks Rappaport where her designs can be purchased otherwise. She refers the girl to her online website, HMR-Designs.com. Rappaport turns to me to express the excitement of her latest achievement: the launch of her first website. “It’s really a sign that everything has come together and it taught me a lot about what I am capable of doing as a designer. To be able to set something like this has exerted my independence and motivated me to continue to move forward with this business,” she says. She twists a strand of hair around her finger. Her fingers display multiple creations. Her pointer finger is completely hidden by a large gold rose with a tiny pearl inside. Every other finger contains at least two or three silver and gold bands covered in small dark jewels. She is her own form of advertisement. I offer to be her publicist, and she chuckles. “Honey, you can put HMR Designs on your resume but I’m sorry, I won’t be able to pay you until I’m rich and famous.” That is an offer any sane person would hold her to.
(All photos courtesy of HMR Designs website)
If you are interested in the artist and the jewelry, check out HMR Designs on http://www.hmr-designs.com/ or on Facebook! Also, Hilary has begun a new line which will be featured on the site soon. So look out for more masterpieces!