Accessories with Attitude Define Miss Wax’s Acrylic Jewelry and Girly Knucklebusters

Miss Kylee Fauss, a.k.a. Miss Wax

Story by Penny Dreadful
Photos by Tom Wallace

One of the more interesting trends that take place whenever the economy takes a hit, is that the importance of accessories in youth culture fashion, rises. The reason for this is because accessories usually provide a less expensive alternative to re-fashion one’s personal style statement relatively quickly and easily. Simply add a statement-piece such as a long necklace with charms, or bold earrings and a knucklebuster, and you’ve added an edge to what may otherwise be a mainstream outfit.

Enter Kylee Fauss, a.k.a. Miss Wax and her jewelry collection made of acrylic cut-outs of modern icons and bold colors, or gold and silver girly knucklebusters. At Label Networks and our sister site for the Business of $reet Fashion, TheLabelLab.com, we’ve featured Kylee and her Miss Wax collection before, but her summer and fall pieces for 2009 deserve another look.

Miss Wax necklaces invoke music-inspired and Warhol-esque images, rave shapes and colors, and bling-pigs

For one, as Miss Wax continues to grow in popularity, so too does her credibility with other rising stars in terms of collaborations. At our Label Lab exhibition last year where Kylee featured her own homemade plastic robot with blinking eyes adorned with her jewelry, she also debuted a limited-edition collaboration with the legendary artist RETNA from the Seventh Letter Crew.

Since then she’s collaborated with street/contemporary women’s brand Hellz Bellz with a bundle earring collection, and branched out from her traditional acrylic earrings into metal rings, long chain necklaces, and bracelets.

Kylee started Miss Wax from painting vinyl pieces -she has even created and wore an entire vinyl dress -and then started working with acrylics cutting and producing everyday statement pieces in bright neon colors or black and white such as subway ticket earrings, spacemen necklaces, lightening bolts, pigs, planes, and Andy Warhol-esque picture pieces. Her last collection, which debuted at Project where she now shows her work, featured some of her most progressive designs to date.

If there’s one accessory brand that continues to make waves and create a solid fanbase in a crossover of street and contemporary markets, its Miss Wax based on Kylee’s intuitive ability to pick-up on what would make an excellent jewelry design -from the most mainstream item, to a nu rave icon, angled shape, or latest bright color.