The camaraderie between Katie deGuzman and Michael Miller started with a bracelet: Katie bought one from Michael to hide a tattoo from her mom. Their shared aesthetic—this affection for things that are equal parts badass and beautiful—is what drives the jewelry line K/LLER COLLECTION that they launched since. From helmets to gold-plated wolf teeth, they show off how that vibe plays out elsewhere and what they’re itching to swipe from one another. —carlye wisel Katie’s Favorite Things of Michael’s:Handmade leather belt by Geoffrey Young: “Geoff gave this belt to Michael—he is an amazing designer and a good friend. The hardware is all sterling silver, and I love that the keep is made of wire and chain. The construction of it is just really beautiful and different.” (geoffreyyoungdesign.com) Black porcelain wolf head with gold enameled teeth: “This is just about the coolest sculpture ever! Michael’s best friend Sarah Cihat created this masterpiece and gave it to her as a housewarming gift. Love, love, love the gold teeth—well, anything gold for that matter!” (sarahcihat.com)Wedge boots from OAK: “Michael has this amazing pair of boots I totally covet. They’re from OAK, which is one of our favorite stores in New York, and they’re these great platform boots that zip up the back and make any outfit look amazing, no matter what you’re wearing. We’re really big shoe girls—we definitely spend the money on the shoes. You got your jewelry and your shoes, and that’s all that matters!” (oaknyc.com)Michael’s Favorite Things of Katie’s:Skull collection (from left to right): “The skull in the way back is a squirrel skull—it was the first present Katie’s husband ever gave her when the were dating. Then there’s a monkey skull, the big guy is a turtle skull Katie found on a deserted beach in Brazil, and the last is a skull of a feral cat from Hawaii that a friend found and gave as a wedding gift.”Custom-made gold-leaf helmet from Joe King Speedshop: “The helmet was given to Katie by Paulo De Tarso Amaral of Joe King Speedshop in São Paulo when she and her husband were visiting Brazil. It’s covered in gold leaf and then shellacked over that. GODSPEED 45/06 refers to Katie’s husband photo project on choppers.” (joeking.com.br)Rivet, the French bulldog puppy: “I’m also a dog lover, and I had a dog for 12 years who died last February. She was a member of our studio when we got together, and then we both went through her death. But now we have a new puppy in our lives.” Get ready to make K/LLER’s edition one of your favorite things: Their porcupine necklace is something really special.

A dingy basement studio isn’t where most people find their future collaborator and co-designer. Yet, for Katie deGuzman (right) and Michael Miller, it’s where their 12-year-long friendship—the basis for K/LLER COLLECTION—first began.  As fast friends studying furniture design at Parsons, the duo honed their metal restoration, lighting design, and jewelry skills separately before eventually coming together two years ago to get their own line off the ground. They’re joined by not only the desire to make goods from scratch but also an obsession with materials: The two hand-cast crystals, feathers, and other natural elements in brass, giving their pieces a tough-to-achieve polished, earthy vibe. And as on-trend as their current quill-filled collection happens to be, they don’t pay too much mind to those sorts of things—they’re all about emulating a lifestyle. ”We really look at this as, ‘What do i want to wear? What speaks about us?’ We’re similar in our aesthetic, so it works really well,” Katie explains. So well, in fact, that Helmut Lang boutiques are now carrying their work, and their following is growing exponentially. Looks like for them being stuck in the basement all that time was worth it. —carlye wisel Don’t miss out on Katie and Michael’s edition. It’s a porcupine quill necklace that’s as cool as they are.

When Katie deGuzman, one half of the K/LLER COLLECTION team, stumbled upon a porcupine quill in a shop one day, she decided to play around. Casting a few in brass and falling in love with the outcome, she and her cohort Michael Miller decided to incorporate both the natural and juiced-up incarnations into a few of their tough, delicate pieces—including the limited-edition necklaces they made for Of a Kind. As badass as these quills look, no animals were harmed in this process—porcupines shed them naturally like people do hair, but, lucky for us, these are a lot prettier than our bathtub strays. Here, Michael and Katie explain how our necklace came together. —carlye wiselBlown away by all of this? We feel you. Get your hands on the finished product right over here.Michael: “After measuring and cutting all four pieces of chain, the jump ring that holds all the pieces together is hammered, and the chains are assembled.”Michael: “Once we receive the metal quills from the caster, we cut the sprue [a piece of excess metal from the casting process], grind it down, and polish it. Then, a jump ring is looped through the metal quill, which we attach to the longer chain on the front of the lariat. “Michael: “We then solder the jump rings—the metal quill jump ring and the center jump ring that attaches all pieces together. Afterwards, we solder the back one for closure.”Michael: “We clean the real quill, making sure there’s no broken parts and also file down the edges so they’re not killer sharp—they’re a little dulled down and not too dangerous. Then we drill them and attach a jump ring.”Katie: “We patina the whole thing and blacken it until we’re happy with its color. We clean it off and do that process a couple of times, dipping and cleaning until it gets the appropriate color. Then, we clean the center jump ring and buff it. We like all of our hardware to be a little brassy.”Katie: “Lastly, we add the logo tag, and then it’s complete! We’ve have our custom K/LLER tags, and they’re kind of our favorite things. They were our first big purchase when we became a company.”