On Trend: For the boys

Let’s talk men’s accessories. This post is long overdue considering the percentage of beautiful men in my circle of friends who regularly ask me to validate their purchases (that percentage is roughly 75). So boys, this is me giving you a tip. Sit on those links to your ASOS swimsuits/Jack Spade murses until you check this out.

The tip? BR-based ETCH Studio has now launched a line of handcrafted, laser-cut men’s accessories. Fellas, you may now commence with the swooning.

But first, a little background on ETCH. ETCH is the brainchild of twenty-somethings Mallory Estopinal and Zoé Ganch. Lauren and I both own some of their jewelry, and they’ve been all over our pubs in the past year—with good reason. These girls are the real deal. And did I mention they’re also full-time 5th year architecture students? Yep. The plates are so full. You know what’s worse, though? I’ve known them for a hot minute through a mutual friend and they are adorable and fun and crazy smart. Basically, all the things that prevent you from being able to hate them. All while being infinitely more professional than people twice their age. The nerve.

Now back to the boys. They recently launched a line of men’s accessories featuring a tie clip and cuff links in two styles—one in a bold-lined maple, the other (my favorite) in a geometrically-etched dark walnut. You can buy them by the set ($32), or individually at $24 each (cuff links, tie clip).

Read on to see what made them add men’s accessories, and what else ETCH has up their sleeves in the coming months. (Answers via Mallory Estopinal.)

What made you decide to expand into men’s accessories?
The idea of men’s accessories has been something we’ve been thinking about for a while now. We always joked with our guy friends about making a line of “METCH” for them, and after hearing from a few saying they’d seriously love a wooden tie clip or a hip bolo, we figured why not give it a try!

What has the response to the pieces been so far?
So far, there’s been a lot of excitement about the pieces! We’re trying to spread the hype for Valentine’s day, but would love to look into more pieces to keep on the website year-round!

Are there any other men’s pieces you’re planning?
Right now we’re focusing on the tie clips and cuff links, but our bolo that we’ve designed for the new line is going to be a slightly more masculine piece that I think a lot of men will be secretly swooning over.

Are there any other expansions you’re planning?
We’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with coasters and custom pieces such as luggage tags lately, and we hope to have a set of coasters that we can put up on the website for sale soon! We’re all about the wooden home accessories, so it’s just a matter of playing with different ideas and refining a product!

When will the new collection of women’s accessories be available online?
We’ll be launching the new collection beginning of March (eeee!) and are so excited to reveal all the ideas we’ve been storing up in our brains that have been dying to come out.

Follow the girls on Instagram at @etch_studio to stay up-to-date on everything they’re working on, including the new collection.