Unique fashion accessories you'll only find close to home

Web Posted: 07/01/2004 12:00 AM CDT

Excerpted from San Antonio Express News, July 1, 2004

by Emily Spicer
San Antonio Express-News

Imagine how it felt to be the first woman to wear Zac Posen. Or the first to lunch in Chanel, or to strut down Fifth Avenue in a sky-high pair of Jimmy Choos.

Such fashion-forward women may never achieve celebrity status, but they do earn a sense of self-satisfaction, along with bragging rights for life.

Here are six San Antonio-connected designers with small, cool lines worth watching. Savvy shoppers will know which ones to wear before they're spotted on the red carpet.

Joyarte

Priscilla Martínez has been a jewelry designer since her Lee High School days. She made her own graduation ring after having taken metalsmithing classes there.

She went on to become a ballet dancer and actress in New York , and moved back to San Antonio three years ago when she and her husband started their family. While she's still in the ballet world, occasionally choreographing for the San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet, she's indulging in the jewelry "hobby" she has dabbled in for years.

She now designs gold and silver bracelets, necklaces and earrings that look like delicate, intricate sculptures set off with semi-precious stones. Her personal favorites are the pieces in gold with vividly colored stones.

"There's just something so special about gold," Martínez says. "And I love color, so with most of my work, I try to put some color into it."

Price: $50-$300

Where: Dahlia in San Antonio

For more information, visit www.joyarte.com.