PHOTO BY PIPPA DRUMMOND
When Rhode Island native Kiel James Patrick was a kid, summer didn’t start until he slipped on a new sailor’s knot bracelet— and it didn’t end until he cut it off. Now, as the founder of an eponymous fashion brand that celebrates preppy New England style, he has created a version of the seaside staple that can be worn year-round.
The bracelets have practical origins: Sailors used to make them to master tying knots. Patrick’s pieces are hand-tied and -dyed in the brand’s Pawtucket factory before being finished with brass anchor clasps. (When they were starting out, Patrick and his wife, Sarah Vickers, dyed the rope in lobster pots in their backyard). “Rhode Island used to be the jewelry manufacturing capital of the world,” Vickers says. “We wanted to create something that combined the state’s coastal and manufacturing heritage.”
From $38, kieljamespatrick.com
