JUST FOR FUN

`In'Time

Jacqui Chazen's watches have hit the big time.

BY LYNNE KONSTANTIN

I

Each Jacqui Chazen Designs ribbon watch is an original,

like these Pucci-inspired prints.

nspired one day last year
by a favorite Hermes silk
Twiny scarf, Jacqui Chazen
threaded it through the loops of a
watchface she purchased in Italy,
wrapped it around her wrist and
went on her way.
Although many passersby on
the streets of Beverly Hills,
Calif., admired Chazen's creation,
it wasn't until the celebrity- and
music-publicist wore it to a Dave
Matthews concert that a fellow
concert-goer really got to her.
"He said, 'If you don't start a
business with that in the next 28
days, then I will,"' Chazen
explains. "I was challenged."
Her parents bought her a
sewing machine; she learned
how to use it, and the Bloomfield
Hills native and Congregation
Shaarey Zedek Hebrew High
School graduate began making
use of her high-profile contacts
to shop her colorful, whimsical,
yet practical confections to the
likes of Dreamworks and the
William Morris Agency.
At the same time, a similarly
styled ribbon watch made by
Movado was featured as one of
Oprah Winfrey's "Favorite
Things" segments, a boon to
Chazen's pieces, which are a
fraction of the price.
Now, less than a year later,
Chazen has opened her own
company, Jacqui Chazen
Designs, which includes doggie
clothes, computer bags and lin-
gerie bags. She is about to intro-

duce her fall line of leather and
silk watches and has just sealed a
deal with T.J. Maxx.
She also has the admiration
(proven on their wrists) of
Hollywood A-listers such as
Jessica Simpson (who has four of
Chazen's watches), Eva 'Mendes,
Marcia Cross and Mike Myers,
who was so overwhelmed by the
luscious choices at the 2005
People's Choice Awards in L.A.
that he began snapping pictures
with his cell-phone camera to
send to his wife so she could
choose for herself.
Chazen is a bit in awe of the
company's success, but she takes
it in stride. "I didn't re-invent
the wheel," she says. "I just
made it cuter."
For the spirited Chazen,
though, it's also about a fresh
start. After the loss of her father
and a sister and suffering an ill-
ness at an early age, which
required her to relearn how to
walk just months before her bat

mitzvah, Chazen feels extremely
fortunate to have had "things
turn around the way they have."
"I feel really lucky," she said.
"This has renewed my life. And
I feel like my father and sister
are behind it all."
Today, Chazen's mom, stepfa-
ther and their "Brady Bunch
family," she says, are extremely
supportive. "They spend hours
playing with the watches, chang-
ing bands and changing faces. Of
course, they get the family dis-
count." 01

For information on purchasing
ribbon watches and other items
by Jacqui Chazen Designs, visit
her Web site,
wwwjacquichazendesigns.com .

Chazen's computer bags are 100

percent silk and can be custom

made in three sizes and any color.

JNPLATINUM • MAY 2005

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