24 March 2026 |
The jewelry brand founder has taken a sorry, not sorry approach to his life’s work and business.
Text ROXANNE ROBINSON
“I love design, I love fashion, but I’m more than just an earring,” says Alexis Bittar via Zoom from his Brooklyn townhouse in late December. “As a platform, I think it is important to talk about things that mean something.”
Bittar, a New York–born-and-bred designer who began his career in 1990—at the age of 22—by selling hand-carved lucite baubles at downtown flea markets, has constructed his business around advocating for what he believes in. Over the years, that’s included supporting LGBTQ+ causes and enlisting British stars like Joan Collins and Ab Fab’s Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley to star in deliriously fun, campy campaigns.
He was discovered by the legendary Bergdorf Goodman fashion director Dawn Mello in the early ’90s and went on to collaborate with brands such as Burberry, Michael Kors, and Mugler, as well as with Sex and the City stylist Patricia Field on pieces for the show. By 2004, he’d opened his first store in New York and was starting to win industry awards from the CFDA, Accessories Council, and the Museum of Arts and Design.
Alexis Bittar by Carlos Ruiz
In 2015, the brand, in conjunction with its private equity backer, was sold to Brooks Brothers, only for Bittar to buy it back five years later—paying less than 10 percent of the purchase price—when Brooks Brothers filed for bankruptcy.
In its new iteration, Bittar 2.0 was focused on direct-to- consumer business, rehired key former employees to give them a stake, and opened five stores with pandemic-friendly leases designed with an industrial feel by Tony Award-winning set artist Scott Pask.
Since then, Bittar has achieved marketing nirvana with his Webby Award-winning social media series Margeaux & Jules, a mockumentary-style send-up that takes a cynical look at the fashion world with tongue firmly in cheek.
As part of the Bittarverse, Margeaux & Jules has been championed not only on Instagram and TikTok—alongside guests like Susan Sarandon and Real Housewives stars such as Lisa Rinna, Sonja Morgan, and Jessel Taank—but has also hosted meet-and-greets at the brand’s brick-and-mortar stores. The 360-degree effect ensured that online engagement led to real-world conversions. “This wasn’t just about creating viral content, it was about making sure that content had a clear path to purchase,” Jessica Steele, VP of retail sales and marketing at Alexis Bittar, explained to Ad Age last year.
The efforts to produce the videos, each created in-house with a freelance film crew, have paid off. The brand reported a 252 percent increase in Instagram sales in the series’ first year.
Clockwise from top left: Bittar’s ‘The Sexecutions of Amanda Gates,’ starring Jazzelle aka UglyWorldWide, directed by Alexis Bittar, co-directed by Klimovski; Bittar’s ‘Margeaux & Jules,’ featuring Patricia Black and Julie J; his 2010 campaign featuring Joan Collins, photographed by Anthony Maule, styled by Marie Chaix, hair by Jimmy Paul; ‘Margeaux & Jules’
Last October, Bittar’s authentic approach crested over into the political sphere when he was handpicked by New York City’s now-mayor Zohran Mamdani to host a fundraiser. The pair had met at a Brooklyn meet-and-greet, where Mamdani and his team were impressed by Bittar’s direct and salient feedback.
“[Afterwards] the chief of staff [Elle Bisgaard-Church, who was then campaign manager] asked me if I would be interested in doing something, and I said, sure. Then Zohran called me. I had just driven home from Maine for nine hours with three kids in the back seat. He asked me if I would be interested in bringing together people from the business community, including those on the fence about voting for him. They thought it would be a great opportunity to meet this population,” says Bittar.
Given the polarizing nature of the democratic socialist mayor’s campaign, the designer says the blowback he received after posting a photo from the event to his personal Instagram account was like nothing he ever imagined. “I got blasted, I’d never had that experience,” he says. “I tend to want people to like me. So I was like, wait, what’s happening? I knew it was going to have a reaction. I just didn’t realize it was going to have such an extreme reaction, like calls to boycott my company or that I’m antisemitic, which obviously made me insane because that’s the farthest from the truth.”
Alexis Bittar by Carlos Ruiz
For Bittar, there’s a line in the sand: “How much is the money important to you versus what you think?” He’s since continued to support Mamdani, having attended the inauguration in January with his children. Meanwhile, Gothamist anointed him the “biggest bundler” (i.e. fundraiser) of the campaign.
Within his own studio, Bittar’s most daring campaign to date debuted in December. The Sexecutions of Amanda Gates is a true-crime documentary-style series about an abused serial killer targeting ‘serial abusers.’ The 1970s campy kitsch vibe is Bittar- brand DNA, with the characters dripping in the latest handbags and jewelry. “It’s 70 percent serious and 30 percent humor, and features empowered complex women,” he says.
“I might get hammered for it, but I don’t care,” Bittar says in what seems to be a recurring theme for his state of mind. The storyline aims to shed light on and seek justice for sexual abuse victims and is a commentary on society’s fascination with violent crime. “I’ve never seen a brand use any marketing like this,” says Bittar, who also creative-directed and storyboarded the episodes. “You could argue she is a vigilante. She kills repeat sexual abuse offenders who have avoided the law, kind of like an Epstein or a Weinstein.”
It’s all in a day’s work for a designer, who is keenly aware that not all designers can buy back their names—citing Halston’s famous lament—and who sees his freedom as the sole owner as allowing risk-taking that other brands could only dream of. Now approaching his late fifties, Bittar embodies a Gen X no- fucks-given attitude.
“The brand-as-a-platform is important for addressing topics that matter, like social issues, not just profit,” he says before pausing for a beat. “I’m okay with upsetting the apple cart. Even if I couldn’t afford to, I’m not willing to play it safe anymore.”
Bittar in his Brooklyn studio
With the First Lady, Michelle Obama; as a young man; with his brother in Brooklyn, in front of their flower cart built by their Dad
Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 6 – CREATIVITY, CHANGE, FREEDOM – out now! Order your copy here.
ALEXIS BITTAR: UNAPOLOGETICALLY ALEXIS
Photographer CARLOS RUIZ
Talent ALEXIS BITTAR
Text ROXANNE ROBINSON
Photographer’s assistant MATTHEW BAKER
