In a busy restaurant on Broadway in the Upper Westside of Manhattan, Alicia and I sit down to have breakfast. The place is packed with the wait staff rushing around serving the customers. While we look at our menus, a woman is her thirties stop at our table. “I love your earrings, I’ve never seen anything like them,” she says to Alicia. Modestly, Alicia thanks her and wipes out a card from her purse. She says, “I designed them, please take my business card and check out my website.”

During our meal, another woman stops to admire her earrings. Again, I watch Alicia go into her marketing spill. Throughout the course of our meeting, I observe other women spying on Alicia’s earrings. At one point, I touched one of my gold hoop earrings, feeling inadequate because I didn’t have a pair of Alicia’s charismatic earrings to wear. If you are into wearing colors such as beige and gray, you may not be interested in wearing something as brilliant as Alicia P’s jewelry. I bet though with her talent that she can create something that you will like.

Alicia Piller designs fashionable tee-shirts and designer suede jewelry. This young woman is putting in long hours to make a name for herself in the world of fashion. Her colorful lightweight suede necklaces, earrings and hand painted tee-shirts are turning heads.

Alicia is a petite twenty-five years old with auburn curly hair. She has the features of a model but not the height. After graduation from college, she moved to New York, determined to make it on her own. Currently, she resides in Manhattan, but she is a native of Chicago. A graduate of Rutgers College, Alicia P majored in anthropology and fine arts. She attributes her creativity to her love of travel in North and South America, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. Anthropology plays a significant role in her decision making process when creating her unique designs. People, their use of colors in their clothing and environment are some of the considerations she utilizes in the construction of her work.

She has an inherent ability to come up with ornate jewelry using colorful pieces of suede by intertwining them with glass beads and objects into patterns that form an interesting visual effect. Through trial and error, she has learned the secret of bonding her suede pieces together and that secret she is not sharing. Believe me when I say, there is no other jewelry in the world like hers.

Additionally, this talented young woman hand paints designs on tee-shirts and tops for women and men. She has the patience to paint one’s name in tiny letters repeatedly in circular shapes and/or around the contour of shirts. Her paintings include pictures of Billie Holiday, Frida Kahlo, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley and others. She allows me to look at her portfolio of custom designs. Thumbing through the pages, I see unbelievable images that she has produced. Alicia is a talented artist who can custom design almost anything.

Designs by Alicia P is her company name. I asked her why she didn’t shorten the name to Designs by Alicia and her reply was, “There is another jewelry designer that goes by that name.” There is no way to mix the two companies up because Designs by Alicia P’s main focus is on suede jewelry and hand painted tees-shirts. Expect to see much more of this designer’s creations. To see some of her work, check out her websites at: www.designsbyaliciap.com.