Bond Hardware opens the vault – WWD

Before starting Bond Hardware in 2012, Dana Hurwitz turned found pieces of metal into performance pieces for kids in New York’s underground clubs.

In the spirit of transformation, the designer and her creative partner Mariah Pershadsingh outfitted a selection of handbags, shoes and home accessories with their metal hardware. Entitled Bond Vault, these unique pieces bear witness to the brand’s commitment to the circular economy.

“This idea for the collection is years in the making,” said Elaine Gold Launch Pad competition first prize winner Hurwitz. “While working with parts we have on hand has been a priority since COVID[-19].”

The Bond girls teamed up with 1stDibs during the pandemic to make their offering more accessible, but soon began using the online marketplace to shop second-hand items for conscious creation.

By reinventing low-end fetish objects like studs and harnesses as art objects, Hurwitz and Pershadsingh deconstruct standard notions of luxury. The Bond Vault does the same – this time, top to bottom.

For Vault’s debut installment, she treated a battered Balenciaga City bag in her hometown of Chappaqua, NY, with a removable mace case, pony hair guitar strap, and rubber-coated chain. Elsewhere, a Waterford crystal vase, a velvet pouf and several Hermès bags were pierced with Bond’s surgical-grade stainless steel hitch rings.

Available on Bond’s e-commerce site, the Vault pieces are also part of an ongoing installation at the brand’s Brooklyn headquarters, an airy loft where its legion of provocateurs congregate, shop and occasionally get drilled.

“Exhibiting works where we live and create is a way of sharing the whole experience that Bond Hardware has always been for us,” said Pershadsingh, who resides at Bond headquarters with her Abyssinian cat, Tewari. “Bond goes beyond the closet. It’s at my house.