By Amy Byrnes
RED BANK – Of course you’ve heard of the man cave. And by now, are aware of the need to man-scape. You might have even gone on a man-cation carrying your murse.
If you’re looking for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for a man, you may want to look at a man-cessory.
Jersey Shore newsman Brian Williams was recently spotted on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” sporting some tasteful, leather arm candy that happens to be created for and sold at Poor Cat Designs located downtown at 69 Broad St.
On a recent appearance to commemorate his 10th year manning the NBC “Nightly News” helm, the buttoned-up anchorman and Mater Dei grad was called out by Fallon for wearing a pair of dark brown, braided leather bracelets that peeked out from under his proper white cuff.
“Do you always wear those leather bracelets?” Fallon asked, leaning over his desk and pointing to Williams’ right wrist.
“It’s a man-cessory,” Williams told the late night host straightening his cuffs. “Men don’t get to accessorize.”
And while the two went on to verbally spar over whether Williams was channeling his inner Capt. Jack Sparrow (“What are you, Johnny Depp?” Fallon cracked) the quick mention was not only great publicity for the local jeweler but proved that wearing a bracelet or two is not just for rock ‘n’ roll stars any more.
According to Joseph Romanowski, the designer behind Poor Cat Designs, Williams was first introduced to the notion of man-cessories when he received a Poor Cat bracelet and charm as a gift from pals Bruce and Patti Springsteen a few years ago. While Williams loved the piece, Romanowski – who’s been a jeweler for over 40 years and owns Goldtinker in Red Bank as well – says the charm kept interfering with the network studio lighting. Romanowski promptly designed a more camera-friendly piece for Williams by tying a few of the leather bracelets together, and a trend was born.
Williams now “kind of has a thing” for the manly accessories and Romanowski, who’s friends with the news anchor, sends him a few pieces each month that Williams both wears and often gives away as gifts. The longtime jeweler – who opened his first Goldtinker store in Deal in 1971 – says the Poor Cat bracelets have been handed out to everyone from Louisiana residents struggling after the 2010 BP oil disaster – covered extensively by Williams for “Nightly News” – to his daughter and star of “Peter Pan Live,” Allison Williams, who also bought a bunch of Poor Cat pieces to hand out to her fellow cast mates on HBO’s “Girls.”
Poor Cat Designs, which opened in Red Bank in 2007 and has another location in Hoboken, features hand-crafted, chunky platinum, gold and silver charms dangling from metal chains or leather cords that take the shape of everything from Zodiac signs to letters and numbers and a tiny ship anchor and are popular with both news anchors and teenagers.
Since Williams was spotted wearing the bracelets on the Jan. 13 Jimmy Fallon show, Poor Cat has been flooded with requests from across the country for the leather braids, according to Poor Cat Designs’ co-owner Krista Karagias. She says that a Virginia woman took a photo of Williams wearing the Poor Cat braids on her television and then combed the Internet until she zeroed in on the Red Bank shop and bought a “significant amount” of pieces.
Even though Romanowski includes many artists – like Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi – among his manly clientele, he says he’s seen an increase in the number of more traditionally conservative gentlemen – like doctors and “guys who work at Goldman Sachs” – wearing his leather bracelets and necklaces.
“Guys want to be guys,” says Romanowski, who added that he’s been wearing his own rugged designs for years. “But the leather symbolizes masculinity. It’s not fancy.
“You expect to see this kind of stuff on Bruce, but then you see it on someone like Brian Williams,” who Romanowski calls a “funny, funny guy,” despite his staid newsman appearance. The jeweler even sent a few Poor Cat pieces over to Jimmy Fallon so that he could get on the man-cessory wagon.
Maybe a little manly arm candy is the newest man-cessity?
