The celebrity jeweler game can be a crowded one, but New York-based designer Alex Moss has stood apart from the pack by creating pieces that are eye-catching (A$AP Rocky’s $322,000 GRIM belt buckle), highly unique (Tyler, The Creators’s $500,000 bellhop chain & pendant), and widely talked about (Drake’s $12.5 million chain that he implied was made up of diamonds from past engagements that he reconsidered). Alex is also expected to release a second public collection, exclusively at Maxfield in Los Angeles.
Recently Alex’s work has been catching eyes all summer via Hailey Bieber, who’s been sporting an eye-popping ‘B’ initial pendant that she commissioned and created with Moss. Hailey has rarely taken it off since—and now she’s doubled down on Moss’s collaboration with the Bieber family by returning the favor, and working with Moss on a surprise gift for Justin on the occasion of their fifth anniversary.
“I’m not surprised she wanted to work with us again,” Moss says. “I feel like once you have an experience with us, where else can you go from here?”
With Hailey’s input, Moss created a one-of-one custom mushroom pendant set for Hailey and Justin which features a plethora of diamonds and gems including five stones on top, which represents the five years they’ve been married.
Moss provided GQ with exclusive images of the pendant, and talked about what it’s like helping the Biebers ice each other out.
GQ: How did you and Hailey connect?
Alex Moss: So Hailey first reached out to do this bubble letter B pendant, and it became an iconic piece— to give credit to her for it, she’s the one that made it cool.
Did she have something already sketched out or did you have that design to show her?
I’m not going to take credit for that, she had the idea and I just brought it to life. The B pendant, that was totally her vision for sure.
What was the design process like? Was Hailey very hands-on?
Yeah, and she has good taste, and she has good design intuition. At first we were trying to brainstorm together on what to make, whether it was going to be another initial pendant or something. She was the one who suggested we create (mushroom pendants), something along these lines. And then, of course, I put my twist to it, and I designed the actual mushroom. Hailey specifically wanted the mushroom to be in that bubble style. When you have two people with good taste, you can’t lose.
It has such a wide array of colors, how did you guys settle on them?
I showed (Hailey) some different color options and then she liked the multicolor option that I went with. And then she also suggested we do a yellow gold one to match the set.