New York-based jewelry designer Terry Castro’s knack for blending the fantastic with the elegant has taken him from selling on New York sidewalks to adorning celebrities like Rihanna and Steven Tyler. I urged. He died at his home in Istanbul on July 18th. he was 50 years old.
The cause was a heart attack, said his son, Sir King Castro.
Mr. Castro, who was active under a single name Castro, considered himself a “dream creator”. He scoured his antique shops and thrift stores for inspiration for his sassy yet opulent pieces, mixing animal and human forms and evoking African influences with medieval and galactic imagery. Although he produced only about 35 pieces a year by hand, his work has graced the covers of Vogue, His Latin, His America, Forbes, and The Hamptons magazines, as well as his 2013 feature film Out. of the Furnace”.
For Castro, jewelry was more than just a fashion accessory. “He lived and acted more as an artist than an independent designer,” said Nghi Nguyen, his close friend and designer at Brooklyn-based jewelry. “His work can be classified as high art jewellery. Wearable, museum-quality sculptures.”
It sometimes had matching prices. antique bisque doll Necklaces – part of his signature Dollies series made from tiny porcelain figurines, featuring vibrating wings and removable masks, diamonds and other precious gems recently sold for over $100,000. Lord Castro said in an interview.
A mostly self-taught black designer, according to friends, Castro prided himself on being an outsider in the world of fine jewelry. “The jewelery industry prides itself on its intergenerational wealth and access to materials and resources. Jules Kim, friend and fellow jeweler. “People who weren’t born there have to rely on the agency they have. Castro has lived by creating his own tradition.”
Passionate and sometimes confrontational, Mr. Castro considered himself a rebel within the industry.
“I do what I want; you don’t like it, don’t buyIn a 2012 interview with style blog The Black Nouveau, he said: He reviewed various efforts to “commercialize” and concluded that the revenues were not justified by the creative cost.
“My real account flipped me out,” he said. “I was branded a traitor and am now back to the dark side. If you have no power, stay away from me.”
However, it seems that his uncompromising attitude attracted people instead.
In 2020, De Beers, one of the world’s largest diamond producers, partnered with Hollywood activist group RAD (Red Carpet Advocacy) to feature Castro and five other black designers in a campaign. #BlackisBrilliantThe campaign provided jewelry featuring ethically sourced diamonds from Botswana to celebrities to wear at celebrations and awards ceremonies.
Sally Morrison, director of public relations for natural diamonds at De Beers Group, said in an email.
Last September, Sotheby’s labeled Mr Castro’s work “Brilliant & Black: A Renaissance in Jewelry‘ features 21 black designers. “People literally danced into the exhibition and cried,” said Melanie Grant, a noted jewelry writer who curated the show, at its opening in New York. And Mr. Castro, with his outgoing personality and charismatic presence, was the show’s natural star.
“It’s still hard for black designers to access top-level collectors,” Grant said. “But I’d like to think we made a difference. Castro was a big part of that.”
Terry Clifford Castro was born on January 26, 1972 in Toledo, Ohio, to Mary Castro, an antiques and collectibles dealer, and a father he never knew. In 1989, her mother married lawyer Paul Geller.
In 1999, he married Belinda Castro (her last name, coincidentally, was the same as his). That same year, the couple had a son, bestowing the magnificent name Sir Raymundo Castro.
Castro became interested in jewelry repair after taking a weekend course, ex-wife and now Belinda Strode said in an interview. opened a small jewelery shop called C & C Jewelers, where he did repairs and sold pieces by other designers. Within a few years, according to his ex-wife, he began designing his own jewelry using scrap metal from junkyards.
Both the marriage and the store were short-lived. After Castro and his wife divorced in the early 2000s, Castro moved to Chicago and decided to turn his lifelong interest in fashion into a career, said his half-brother Aaron Geller. said in an interview.
He briefly ran his own apparel line in his native city and had a prominent presence in techno clubs and fashion boutiques. “He wore these spurs on the back of his boots,” recalled his then-best friend Ayana Haaruun. “He thought he was very flying. We called him Lenny Kravitz.”
In 2005, Castro moved to New York City and launched his own jewelry line, Castro NYC, which he sold on the sidewalks of SoHo. His work caught the attention of passing fashion stylists and editors, and he eventually expanded his business, appearing at fashion weeks in Europe and Japan.
Castro continued to challenge racial assumptions as he established himself in the industry. “Personally, I don’t think you are black or African. Your work does not reflect Africa or any part of Africanism because we live in this world and , because you have to think of many other things that other people don’t think of. You have to think in a day,’ he said. in an interview Last year on the fashion website Magnus Oculus
In 2016, he moved to Istanbul due to his insatiable curiosity and wanderlust.
In addition to his son and half-brother, Castro has a mother and stepfather.
Though his work celebrated life in all its color and complexity, death has always been Castro’s fascination. Both animal and human skulls were a common motif.
But his interest in the subject was not morbid. “The skull itself is inside you, part of you, part of life, but also part of death,” he said in an interview with Magnus Oculus. If , they’ll look at the skull and say, ‘Oh my God, that’s voodoo and evil.’ Your head.You’re walking around with it.
