How an AZ couple became jewelers to the stars with a little inspiration from Alice Cooper
Jimmy Chase has vivid memories of the day his life was changed by Elvis Presley.
It happened in 1971, when Chase was just a 10-year-old who liked to hang out in the galleries and jewelry stores of Old Town Scottsdale.
“I saw Elvis Presley on TV,” he recalls. “He was driving a Mark IV Lincoln Continental, got out of the car with his posse and his sideburns, and he was wearing this amazing jewelry.
"I mean, back then, they were wearing big diamond pieces. Really gaudy, if you will. But I was mesmerized by Elvis. I said, 'I want to be like that.'”
He didn’t think he had the talent to make it in music.
“But I thought, ‘What would be the best way to get jewelry?’”
So he went back to the jewelers he considered friends in Old Town Scottsdale and he started asking questions.
At 10.
For all he knows, Chase says, they joked about the kid and all his question in the back room.
But as he got older, his connection to those jewelers got stronger.
“I just grew up in it from there,” he says. “I got my contacts. It’s very important to have the right people to get your gems from. And I learned the manufacturing. I was like a sponge. But I would say that Elvis was my biggest inspiration.”
Jimmy Chase: Jeweler to the rock stars
By the time he was 20, Chase had started making his own jewelry.
But he never turned his back on rock ‘n’ roll, developing a reputation as a jeweler to the stars.
His pieces have been worn by Johnny Depp, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Jackson Browne, Tommy Thayer of Kiss, Don Felder of the Eagles and Orianthi, among others.
“It's nothing I set out to do,” Chase says. “I didn't have this desire to make jewelry for musicians. Or movie stars. Whatever. But I was drawn to music, and I was fortunate to have made some contacts.
"It's always fun to meet the artists. The music means something totally different when you actually know the artist. The song comes on the radio and it has a special connection.”
As Chase expanded his contacts in the music world, more stars started wearing his jewelry.
“It becomes almost like a club,” he says. “You know this one. You know that one. And you're trusted as somebody they can rely on.
"There's so many people out there that would want these famous people to wear their jewelry. But how do they break into that? It’s uncomfortable even for the artists sometimes if they're trying too hard. So this just all happened very naturally, like, 'Oh, hey, you're the jeweler guy. I'm looking for something' or 'I saw this piece.'”
How Jimmy Chase and Alice Cooper became golfing buddies
The first and most supportive rock star to embrace Chase's work was Alice Cooper. They met at the Barrett-Jackson auto auction in Scottsdale, where Chase was working at a booth in the mid-‘80s.
“He was out there looking at cars and he stopped by the booth and saw something he liked,” Chase says.
“It needed to be adjusted. I said, 'Hey, I'll bring it to you.' And we got talking. We ended up going golfing together and the rest is history. We've been friends a long, long time.”
When Chase told Cooper he was launching a new line of jewelry with Denise Monti that would focus on Brazilian gemstones, Cooper suggested the name Jewels From Ipanema, a play on Ant?nio Carlos Jobim’s “The Girl From Ipanema.”
They were golfing at the time.
“I always loved the song 'The Girl from Ipanema,'” Chase says. “’Tall and tan and young and lovely.’ And Denise came from Brazil. So suddenly, I'm dating 'The Girl From Ipanema.' That's what I call her.”
As Cooper recalls the conversation that gave the line of jewelry its name, “His girlfriend is from Brazil and they were looking for a name for their Brazilian jewels. So I said, ‘Jewels From Ipanema. You know, Girl From Ipanema, Jewels From Ipanema.’ They liked that. So they went with it.”
Chase says, “He said it so knowingly. 'She's the girl from Ipanema. Why wouldn't you call it Jewels From Ipanema?’ Some people would have to do a big study and go through a lot of pain. I said, 'That's good enough for me.'”
Why Alice Cooper likes Jewels From Ipanema jewelry
Cooper is a longtime fan of Chase’s jewelry.
“I don't really wear a lot of jewelry,” Cooper says. “Because I play golf. I can't really wear a lot of rings and things like that. But the pieces that I wear, I wear for quite a long time.”
A lot of the jewelry Cooper does wear was designed by Chase, including the piece he’s wearing as he speaks.
“It's a couple of doubloons,” he says. “One was from the coast of New Orleans. The other one was in the Bahamas. They were both from shipwrecks. But it's a one-of-a-kind piece. He’s really the guy that you go to.”
It was through Cooper that Chase met Depp and Felder, “which is the biggest compliment I could ever ask for,” he says, “because it’s real.”
He met many of the celebrities who wear his work at charity events, including “Seinfeld” star Patrick Warburton’s golf tournament in Palm Desert, a benefit for St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
“You see somebody backstage you know and you meet someone else because of it,” Chase says. “It's not even networking. It just happens so naturally.
When school was in: What was Alice Cooper like in high school? Friends share their stories
How Jewels From Ipanema got its start
Chase and Monti had been dating for about a year when they decided to act on the idea that grew into Jewels From Ipanema.
“We were sitting enjoying some wine together and I was talking about how beautiful the gemstones in Brazil are because Denise is from Brazil,” Chase recalls. “And as the conversation went, she said, 'You know, I've always loved designing jewelry.' She's designed jewelry for years. I said 'I've always wanted to try another look besides diamonds.’”
They designed their first piece that night.
“And it's been our best-selling piece of jewelry ever since,” Chase says.
Monti says that first design, which would form the basis of the Picole collection, was based on her childhood collection of Popsicle sticks.
"Denise and I talked about the beautiful stones from her native Brazil," Chase recalls.
"She started to describe the pattern of the 'Picole,' or Popsicle sticks in Brazil and how she loves large colorful gems showcased by diamonds or what we call the flavor of the ring."
There’s a story behind most pieces in the Jewels From Ipanema line, with many of the pieces drawing inspiration from Brazil.
“We have one bracelet and a ring called Muse inspired by the mountains in Rio de Janeiro and the sidewalk of Copacabana beach and Ipanema beach,” Monti says. “So we bring the Brazilian theme. I have good eyes for design and Jimmy has great knowledge about jewelry.”
The majority of the gems they use are from Brazil.
“We highlight colored stones,” Chase says. “Brazilian lemon quartz, amethyst, a number of different stones. And they're accented with diamonds. Of course, they're fashioned usually in 18-karat yellow gold. But all the highlights stones, the major stones, are from Brazil.”
How the designer's childhood in Brazil inspires Jewels From Ipanema
Monti fell in love with jewelry as a young girl in Brazil.
“I grew up seeing my mom wearing beautiful jewelry,” she says. “And it started from there.”
Monti says she’s been in the United States for more than 30 years. The first piece she designed was for a gem she brought back from a trip to Brazil.
“I didn't know Jimmy at the time so I took it to the local jeweler to make,” she says. “I brought the design, I brought the gems from Brazil and I started making my own personal collection before I even thought I would become a jeweler. It’s what I like. I’m a very visual person.”
Monti sees the pieces in the Jewels From Ipanema as a blend of “elegant and edgy.”
But only edgy to a point, as Chase is quick to clarify.
“We like to do designs that are unique,” he says. “And you hear the word edgy a lot. But too edgy is maybe not a good thing. We've got a mix of classic designs with an edge because you don't want your expensive jewelry to go out of style.”
It’s been about three years since Chase and Monti launched Jewels From Ipanema.
“We are so so pleased with our success,” Chase says. “It's getting out there, being noticed. We're doing a lot of art gallery shows. We'll actually bring in models in and create a night for our clients to come and enjoy some wine and some great food and we have a Brazilian band come in and play some beautiful music.”
To Chase, the greatest thrill is seeing total strangers wearing the pieces he and Monti make.
“When you see somebody walk by and they're wearing one of your pieces, to me, that's excitement,” he says. “I love to see people I know wear our jewelry but when we're actually touching other people outside our normal sphere, it's pretty amazing.”
To Monti, the appeal of what they do runs deeper than the jewels they bring back from Brazil or the 18K gold.
“It's made with love,” Monti says. “Everything is a labor of love here.”
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How Alice Cooper gave a Brazilian jewelry company its name
