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In September we will be exhibiting our collection of the the work of fabled US craftspeople Alex & Lee.  Alex Maté and Lee Brooks met and fell in love in Central Park in 1970.  Working together, and painstakingly combining materials including stones, shells, lobster claws, feathers, resin and even monkey fur, and often incorporating intricately braided and knotted strands of hand-dyed and hand-woven multi-hued silk cord (a technique known as Passementerie), they transformed found objects into unique mystical talismans.

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​​Through their adoption by the swinging boho-glitterati of America and Europe, including Erté, Grace Slick, Cher, Elton John, Joan Baez, Bianca Jagger, Vincent Price, Liza Minnelli, Omar Sharif and famously, Salvador Dali, whose museum still houses several of their pieces, and in working on collections with fashion designers Giorgio di Sant'Angelo, Geoffrey Beene and Oscar De La Renta, with periods based in San Francisco, Spain and New York, until Alex’s sad death in the early 1990s, Alex & Lee jewellery became known for its fantasy, exoticism and animist spirituality. 321 Portobello has been lucky enough to collect several of their 1970s pieces including neckwear, bracelets and earrings which are part of a selling exhibition in September 2024.

 

As far we know, this is the first exhibition of an Alex & Lee collection in the UK.

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​The last word is from Alex & Lee, 1974 – ‘within the meditation of love and peace lies our inspiration for creation … we view our jewellery as devotional talismans to adorn the temple of the body. Our collaboration leads to the mystical reunion of at-one-ment.’ Far … as they used to and still should say … Out.​