Based in Brooklyn, Erica is well know for her her cult-favorited jewelry line, and rare vintage finds. She's also a Beklina customer, specifically our loafers. Read our mini q & a below...
Angelina: Do you collect anything?
Erica: Yes! Antique snake jewelry! When I go buying for my store, usually London and the North of England, I find a Victorian serpent piece and fall in love with it. I wear them with the most delicate jewels; I know how to repair it if it gets damaged.
A: What is your favorite thing about being at the age you are now?
E: I turned 40 this year and give less of a fuck than ever before, because I realize that nobody else gives a fuck either. About the stuff that's not worth caring about, I mean. It's all about kindness. It's all about time - it's precious. Occasionally I hear about someone who's 55, and I think that still sounds really old, but it's pretty much a minute away from where I am now. I had some lifetime goals that I hit this year, and I feel like I'm taking a victory lap.
A: When was the last time you experience culture shock?
E: Now that I'm a mom I experience culture shock all the time, even just walking from my apartment to work. It's like I went into a bunker for the entire time I was pregnant, and for the last 8.5 months since my baby's was born. I didn't care about or notice anything except him, and kinda blindly cruised through my days. Since I've been "gone" the world changed a little bit....it's like, oh, now Instagram is all about stories? I had to kind of hustle to catch up. But I think that's not really the culture shock you are asking for. I haven't traveled much recently! I really do think becoming a mother is a totally shocking transformation. I read somewhere (memory loss is a new motherhood thing too) that there's a word for the difficult period of change between childhood and adulthood - adolescence - but no word for the totally hair-raising weirdness of entering motherhood. Matrescence? It's a whole emotional and physical mess.
A: What are you working on these days, something new you're excited about?
E: I just finished renovating a house upstate, a farmhouse, and now the garden is getting tackled. For the last few years it's been a source of real creativity for me - to grow food, see what works, cook and eat that food. I've gotten back into riding horses, too. It's something I did competitively as a kid and, well, and I just love horses. I have a friend upstate, author Courtney Maum, who has her own horse. Sometimes we get together and just talk about our relationships and whatever's on our mind, riding her horse around and around in the ring. We'll give him a bath, deep-condition and braid his mane and tail. It's therapeutic. I think the horse used to belong to Sissy Spacek, an unnecessary but thrilling fact for ya there.
A: Do you have any hobbies outside of work?
E: I am strangely having trouble answering this question. I've had many hobbies in my life, but at the moment, I've kind of got my hands full with work, the baby, a new not-quite-finished renovation, a garden....does sleeping count as a hobby? Because that's what I dream about doing in my free time. Oh, let's say flowers! I am super into flower arranging and will sneakily clip a branch from a NYC tree to force the blooms. I will also take photos of flowers growing, especially in early spring, and then marvel at how beautiful the pictures are. I also have spent more time than I care to admit watching this Chinese youtube vlogger named Li Ziqi. Is this ASMR? Again, I'm 40 and have been out of the loop in mom-world for a year and a half.
Check out Erica's work here.