Catherine Angiel
Owner, West Village Gallery Eclectic
Lindsay Lohan, Christian Slater and Ethan Hawke are a few of jewelry designer Catherine Angiel’s clients; Glamour, Cosmopolitan and New York are some of the magazines who’ve noticed her hip, avant-garde pieces. Though she became accustomed to misogynistic bosses telling her to leave her crafting ambitions to men, Angiel’s personal integrity and style won in the end.
In 1993, she opened her own retail jewelry gallery, Catherine Angiel Gallery Eclectic. That same year, she agreed to be the first lesbian ever on the cover of Newsweek, representing a mainstream lesbian “coming out strong” in their piece “Lesbian Chic.” She helped add the term “commitment ring” to the public’s vocabulary in an early ‘90s publicity tour where her goal was to communicate that unions between gay people are honorable and valid. “I like to think that it was somewhat my contribution,” Angiel, 47, says. “We should really have a life without limitations. Just do what you feel. You have to do what’s in your heart, and everything will follow.“ —LF
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