About Robert Lee Morris

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Robert Lee Morris, born in 1947 in Nuremberg, Germany, built a career in New York that would change the way people thought about jewelry. By 1977 he had opened Artwear in Soho, a neighborhood crowded with galleries and creative energy. The store quickly drew attention, not only from artists and designers but from the Studio 54 crowd looking for something new to wear out at night. His jewelry didn’t sit quietly in a box. It was large, sculptural, and alive with the feel of something ancient, something that carried echoes of tribal art.<br><br> He never treated jewelry as simple decoration. Each piece was a small sculpture that could be worn on the body, bold but also personal. Rings, collars, and cuffs became his language, and people didn’t just see them as accessories. They felt them, sometimes even struggled with them, but always came away changed. His approach to design was tactile and emotional, making the act of wearing jewelry closer to carrying around a piece of art.<br><br> Morris’s shop became more than a storefront. Young designers would walk in with their work tucked under their arms, unsure of what reception they’d get. He looked at their creations with seriousness, not as trinkets but as ideas worth showing the world. With one phone call to an editor at Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar, he could send a newcomer’s designs onto magazine covers. That generosity earned him the title “father of designer jewelry,” not because he asked for it but because he had a hand in launching so many careers.<br><br> His own work appeared on the runways of Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, and Kansai Yamamoto. The collaborations were striking: Calvin Klein’s clean, minimal clothing balanced against Morris’s heavy, organic metalwork; Donna Karan’s urban sophistication amplified by his sculptural cuffs and collars. His pieces weren’t finishing touches but statements, shaping how the clothes themselves were read.<br><br> Awards followed, including the Coty Award for his work with Calvin Klein. Yet the recognition seemed less important than the steady flow of creation. Morris kept building pieces that fused his fascination with sculpture, his respect for craft, and his belief that jewelry should hold meaning beyond appearance.<br><br> Even as trends in fashion shifted, his work remained recognizable. It carried the same pulse of history, the same sense that jewelry could speak to both the past and the present. The studio in Soho became not just his workplace but a gathering point for anyone who believed that what you wear should carry weight and intention.<br><br> Robert Lee Morris’s story isn’t locked in the past. His designs are still out there, still worn, still passed from one person to another. What he began in 1977 continues, each piece a reminder of his conviction that jewelry should be sculpture for the body, powerful enough to inspire both the wearer and those who see it.