Interview with Susan Korn, Founder of Susan Alexandra

This report is portion of an interview collection called Girls Who (Use) Lunch, an exploration of the intersection of foods and manner.

According to spouse and children legend, my very first serious term was appetizer (just question my mother!), so it is only fitting that foodstuff would observe me in the course of my life. Folding napkins for my mom’s catering business in our household eating space as a kid evolved into component-time cafe careers in school, which led to a couple of unsuccessful foods blog site attempts, and at some point landed me in a graduate application established by the original glamazon grasp chef herself, Julia Youngster, that then released my vocation in foods media. I never remember ever seeking a job in food, but wanting back again it looks this path was very unavoidable.

In a line of work with out a genuine “uniform”—though I guess you could argue that blue light-weight-filtering glasses are very necessary for individuals who stare at computers all day—I’ve curated my very own do the job wardrobe and it will involve loads of foodstuff, a foodstuff-iform, if you will. To title a several highlights: a shirt coated in Italian aperitivi, a strawberry patterned jumpsuit that I refer to completely as my “fruit fit,” and a pink gingham turtleneck coated in ants and strawberries. But the piece that kicked off my at any time-escalating selection of culinary adornments is a white beaded bag with beaded 3-D fruits hooked up to the entrance built by New York Town-based brand Susan Alexandra.

The female powering this fruity glory is Susan Korn, a jewellery marker turned Bead Queen whose types make me sense like a really extravagant kid in the ideal way doable. What commenced as a compact operation she ran out of her Chinatown condominium has exploded into a whimsical, bead-stuffed empire complete with a bedazzling flagship keep where by she regularly hosts supper get-togethers, pop-ups, and other community functions. Korn staged a entire-on Susan Alexandra musical created for New York Trend week that includes her unbelievably talented team of buddies, and her very first manner clearly show was held in an precise bagel shop with all the versions dressed as aged faculty waitresses. Of program, there’s also the typical collaborations with direct-to-client food brand names like Fishwife and Handsome Brook Farms, a colorful line of homewares, and so substantially additional. I sat down with Susan to chat about how foodstuff inspires her, from the styles she produces to the foods she would make.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

MADISON TRAPKIN: ​​Can you explain your excellent lunch day? Wherever are you going, what are you consuming, who’s with you, and what are you sporting?

SUSAN KORN: My perfect lunch date is sitting in a beautiful flower-filled area, and I believe I would be in the South of France. I am putting on a definitely stunning, flowy, at ease dress, mainly because I love whenever I can use dresses. I’m wondering it truly is like 83°F, sunny, beautiful, lush, full of lavender and fig trees. The meal demands to mirror where we are, so we’re heading to be consuming a stunning pure wine from a local winery and glowing drinking water. We’re feeding on one thing like a refreshing piece of fish, a salad of all local, seasonal components, and crusty bread. For dessert, I would think about some type of tart with plums. And who am I with? In this scenario, I’m at a desk with my mom, my father, my sister, and my closest mates, all in one desk so I would not have to explain it to them, I’d just have them there.

MT: Wow. You are employed. You’re the subsequent copywriter at Foods52, that was so superior.

SK: Awesome. I settle for that placement.

MT: Alright, terrific. So, it feels like from the odds of COVID, Susan Alexandra has just genuinely exploded and blossomed in the last handful of a long time in conditions of patterns, collaborations, and obviously the retail site. I was wanting to know how the thought of bringing foodstuff into trend arrived about originally?

SK: Every thing we make is so personal to me, and due to the fact I am the only a person who’s building the models, I continually pull inspiration from stuff that I truly care about. I’m so passionate about food items that I think that in a different lifetime, if I was not doing what I am carrying out now, I’d be doing the job in the food items globe. I’m constantly dazzled, encouraged, and fascinated in foods, so it would make sense for me to make a cherry bag or try to capture the sensation of observing shrimp cocktail at a celebration and toss it on an earring. I love blending those two worlds. And to me, cooks and persons in the meals entire world are like celebrities—I like celebs—and it is really so cool that I’m ready to link with men and women in the food world through my work. It really is not the typical way that trend and food function jointly. And I adore that I’m shifting that a little little bit.

MT: Oh, totally. I suggest the way that almost everything about your manufacturer is a fantastic celebration of the meals world, it just would make so considerably feeling. Like, “Oh, shrimp cocktail earrings? Duh.” It really is a delight to witness and a delight to use. What was the 1st piece you built?

SK: I are unable to say if this was the really initial piece, but one of the initial factors I ever made was this hand ring termed the Infant Hold On Ring. It can be so amusing for the reason that I produced that piece in a class that I was getting on how to do wax carving, which is a element of the jewellery-building method. I worked really hard on it, and then I was like, “This is excellent. This isn’t really just a course job, I am likely to essentially make this.” Now we sell them continually devoid of even endorsing them—this ring is our most effective vendor.

MT: I know the ring properly. I also just remembered that hand-painted bracelets are another a person of the initially factors you made. In a way, it feels like so a lot of of the points you make are like friendship bracelets for the reason that it all feels so particular and private. Speaking of personal, what is your beloved piece that you’ve got ever developed?

SK: So it can be tough due to the fact each and every time there is a new layout and it comes to fruition, that new piece is straight away my favorite factor at any time. I have a good deal of favorites that I cycle through, but the one that I keep coming back again to time and time again is the Merry Bag. I have been wearing it persistently for practically 5 many years and it continue to feels like it goes with every thing. It elevates every little thing and it has resilience, which I like in a piece. And I come across it practical—it jazzes up each outfit. I appreciate its flexibility, as well.

MT: Do you have a white whale of beaded fruit? Is there everything that is been too overwhelming or usually elusive?

SK: Ok, so we’ve done a pair tries at a pineapple, and there was a quite small-lived pineapple bag that was truly really darn adorable. I think about the fruits that I am seriously encouraged by and really love to consume We have made cherries, grapes, bananas… We’ve made a great deal, but the fruit that I’d nonetheless like to make is a fig, which is just one of my favorite fruits.

MT: And that goes with your complete French countryside lunch.

SK: Exactly. So there’s the fig, and the kiwi has so a lot visual prospective. A dragon fruit would be unwell, and a pomegranate could be so cool way too, mainly because you could have like pomegranate seeds by some means cascading out of it or some thing.

MT: I are unable to hold out for all of these. I am imagining a goddess-motivated selection as a entire moment that happens.

SK: That would be remarkable, I’d adore to do that.

MT: How has food shaped you all through your lifetime?

SK: You know, I believe of foodstuff as a connector, and that is so worthwhile. My dad is an wonderful chef and cooking with each other was this seriously distinctive bonding experience that we bought to share when I was growing up. It’s nevertheless this kind of a solid tie that we have, so each time we talk I am generally inquiring him for a recipe—stuff I could Google or find in a cookbook—but I like that food items is some thing that keeps our bond solid.

Foodstuff is such an important ingredient to me and I believe it can be anything that I treatment so deeply about due to the fact it is really really shaped my everyday living and who I am. I unquestionably have the exact same tactic to meals and cooking as I do to my do the job: It truly is really intuitive, incredibly layered, pretty vibrant, and it is really reminiscent of so a lot of items and places.

MT: What have you been creating a lot of these days?

SK: I’ve been seriously, truly slammed these days and it really is been tougher and tougher for me to carve time to prepare dinner. But currently, I just came up with this thought: I took rice and peas and I served it cold with chopped up parsley and dill, then some sheep’s milk feta, and I chopped up toasted almonds to sprinkle on top rated. I concluded it with a light vinaigrette of lemon juice, olive oil, salt ,and pepper, and that was what I ate currently. And I just truly loved it.

MT: That seems amazing. You have obtained all the textures going on.

SK: Yeah, it is a very little complicated, but I will not intellect that—food is these kinds of an crucial component of my imaginative output.