Natalia Brilli's jaw-dropping leather accessories
You know you've fallen deeply in love with a fashion item when you dream about owning it. And that's exactly what happened mere hours after I first laid eyes on designer Natalia Brilli's leather accessories at Zainab, a new high-fashion boutique on Melrose Avenue.
Whimsical -- and often comical -- Brilli's jewelry, bags and small leather goods are defined by what can most succinctly be described as leather shrink-wrapping: objects wrapped so tightly in leather, you can distill every bump and curve of the item underneath.
There are bags dripping with leather-wrapped bones, an eyeglass case sporting leather-wrapped specs and (perhaps Brilli's most inspired piece) the ghostly, futuristic "Nolexes": fake Rolex watches-turned-bracelets that are wrapped in hides and affixed with snap closures ($378).
The stuff of dreams, for sure.
Natalia Brilli accessories are available at Zainab, 7021 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 930-8951.
--Emili Vesilind
Photo of Natalia Brilli's brilliant "Nolex" bracelet. Courtesy of Natalia Brilli.
