The Evolution of a Jewelry Prince

ALEXIS BITTAR stood in his studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn, surrounded by rows of chunky Lucite bangles in a spectrum of candy colors. The bracelets, which have graced the covers of nearly every major fashion magazine, including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, have earned him many nicknames.

“He’s the Lucite king,” said Dawn Mello, a fashion consultant. Others call him the crown prince of costume jewelry.

But one thing you won’t hear Mr. Bittar called is predictable. Pieces from his newer lines were also scattered around the showroom: weaponlike jagged metallics, clusters of Swarovski crystals and dark woods twisted and gnarled like prehistoric artifacts. That they look nothing like his trademark Lucite suits him just fine.

Mr. Bittar has evolved himself, from a downtown club kid who, he admits, did too many drugs, to a jewelry designer whose company took in $70 million last year. And in another big shift, he signed last month with TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm, to expand his brand from celebrity clients like Cameron Diaz and Michelle Obama to the mass market.

“I feel like I put my life back together,” said Mr. Bittar, 43, whose shaven head, facial scruff, rumpled blue dress shirt, jeans and New Balance sneakers made him look more like a Web programmer than a fashion-world dandy. “I relate to people who’ve really been through it.”

To hear Mr. Bittar tell it, he went through it. He was born and raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to a Syrian-Christian father and an Irish-Catholic mother, computer-science professors who traded antiques and designed dresses to supplement their income.