Prospects pretty bright for Lucy

Apr 25 2008 by Jessica Thomas, The Journal

A YOUNG Northumberland woman is on the verge of making it big in the Big Apple taking her jewellery company to the stars.

Lucy Carr-Ellison – granddaughter of Sir Ralph Carr-Ellison, former Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear – left home in Hedgeley Hall, Powburn, Alnwick, to forge a fashion career in New York.

Now her jewellery has been seen round the necks of celebs including actress Mischa Barton and is regularly featured in glossy magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Flaunt.

The 22-year-old’s company and website is called Pretty Black, a reference to a pirate flag as many of her designs feature skulls.

Others include little soldiers with moving arms, treasure chests that open, skulls with moving jaws and swords and they hang singly or as a bunch on long chains.

Lucy said: “Of course, making them from scratch has made the prices increase and with the economy crashing over here it has been really tricky selling them to shops, although you can buy them on my website.”

Lucy lives in the lower East side of Manhattan, interning for magazines and helping out on fashion shoots.

And she confesses that starting her own business has not been easy.

“I had no idea how to go about PR and definitely made some expensive mistakes in the beginning,” she said. “As for the financial side and accounting, well that still goes right over my head.” Lucy admits her company and website – www.pretty-black.com – were started by mistake. “I had a bunch of charms that I loved and I chucked them on to a long chain, then one of my friends who is a DJ wanted one too, and he got photographed wearing it,’’ she said.

“I started scouring the vintage shops finding cool charms to turn into jewellery for my friends, and because a lot of them are models and designers, I soon started getting calls from random people and shops asking for them.”

Her designs were featured in Harper’s Bazaar in America, which pushed her business to the next level, with celebrities, DJs and socialites soon clamouring for them.

After leaving Queen Margaret’s School, York, in 2004, Lucy started selling jewellery and clothes in Portobello Market in London before moving in 2005 to New York, where she is studying fashion photography at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.

She said: “I was still finding my charms in vintage shops, which was great, but I wanted to design my own precious metals, which takes the form of my first line, Marquess of Montagu.

“It takes inspiration from the 1464 Battle of Hedgeley Moor, which took place near my house in Northumberland.”

FAMILY KEEN TO HELP

LUCY’S mother and father, Catherine and John, are very supportive of her venture.

Mr Carr-Ellison is an award-winning farmer at Hedgeley Farm in Alnwick and her mother Catherine is president of the North-East branch of the Royal British Legion women’s section, and involved in many charities, including Macmillan Cancer Support.

She will be opening Hedgeley Hall’s gardens in the last week of May to raise money for the charity.

Lucy said: "Both of my parents have been very supportive about New York and my business. Dad especially has guided me when I have had problems, especially on the business side, as I am much better at the creative side.

"However, at the same time they think it’s very important for me to learn how to deal with the problems, so unfortunately they don’t just sort everything out for me when things go wrong."

Lucy’s grandfather Sir Ralph was chairman of Tyne Tees Television for 22 years, of the Automobile Association since 1986 and of Northumbrian Water Authority from 1973 to 1982, when Kielder reservoir was created.