Subversive.

Byline: Florence Kane

The term Baroque comes from a Portuguese word that means "pearl of irregular shape." Is it any accident that Justin Giunta uses faux pearls in his lavish, ornately textured jewelry of irregular shapes? "When jewelry was made in Baroque times, of course they were of precious gemstones and they were pearls," Giunta says, "but more important, they were one-of-a-kind, hand-wrought from a designer. The idea was that it was one piece."

And that's the very concept Giunta himself sticks to when designing jewelry under the name Subversive. He can twist and turn out six or seven pieces a day while sitting "like a little machine" in his Manhattan studio at a table laden to the max with the antique crystals, beads, shells, and you-name-it-he-uses-it whatsits and doodads that he entwines with vintage chains. He christens the results with names like Troy Meets Run-D.M.C. (a combination of Grecian-inspired laurel leaves and blingy hip-hop chains) and Cannibal Country Club (tribal beads and the aforementioned pearls). If you can ascribe a method to his ...