Some girls just have a knack for jewelry. I am not one of those girls, but 10 Crosby (Derek Lam) design director Liz Giardina most certainly is. She's got armfuls—and knuckle...fuls?—of curated leather and silver bling that some trend-hunter without the time or know-how would pay a crazy premium for. But that assemblage, complete with her year-round signature chocolate nail color, makes every. single. thing she wears look amazing. A vintage black jumpsuit (like the one she's wearing above), a t-shirt and jeans—you name it. Her hands do the talking. And, to our delight, she told us a thing or two about them. —E.W.

'I work with my hands, so I don’t like my hands to look delicate. Lady Godiva by Essie is the only nail-polish color I wear. I don’t really like any sort of red, and this is masculine but it’s not black; it’s kind of ‘tailored’ in a way. I didn’t go to school for design, I went to school for sculpture, and I have a lot of sculptural rings—I’ve worn this much jewelry since I was like twelve or thirteen, so it’s like who I am. I never take three of my rings off, unless I’m exercising or something. And this whole right arm [rattles bracelets] comes off when I draw, which is, like, all the time, so if I’m called into a meeting, it takes me 30 seconds to put my jewelry back on. I'm right-handed...but I just think all this stuff looks better on the right. The left arm is always fairly bare. The only time I ever have anything on the left arm is when I wear matching cuffs, which I thought about wearing today but I couldn’t find one of them. In my apartment, I have these pine boxes, and each pine box has a different theme of jewelry. Like, one of them is all-black, one is reds and neutrals, like leathers, one is turquoise with silver, one is silver alone, and then one leather Tibetan box where I keep mostly what I wear every day. I lose shit all the time. I lost four really, really important, good, awesome rings in the past year. What I spend completely ranges—some stuff is kind of expensive, some of it’s not. A lot of things I wear were gifts: every person that I’ve dated, I just say, 'This is what I want right now.' [Laughs] Like, I really wanted—they’re sort of no big deal—these four sterling bracelets from Love Adorned. I really like sterling because it’s soft. And I have a bracelet by Jacqueline Rabun, an American designer but she’s in London, and she’s amazing. I don't wear gold a lot, but I always wear this one ring that my dad gave my mom when they were dating when they were eighteen. I used to work with Marco Zanini, who's at Rochas now, and he gave me one. And my mom and I call each other 'Fatty,' so I have my Fatty bracelet. I actually had it made for her and then I just stole it back.”

—as told to ITG

Liz' jewelry (in her own words):

Bracelets:

1. Sterling * linked bangles from Timbuktu on 2nd Ave

2. Woven black leather bracelet from Beads of Paradise on 17th Street

3. Sterling engraved ID bracelet made in L.A. originally for my mom

4. Leather Hermès bracelet

5. Tiffany's faux watch bangle

6. 20+ leather bracelets that I bought on the street in Florence

7. Sterling and gold double bubble bracelet by Jacqueline Rabun)

8. Sterling irregular bangle bought at New York Adorned (now Love Adorned)

Other arm

1. Another sterling irregular bangle bought at New York Adorned (now Love Adorned)

Rings:

1. Afghan seal ring

2. Double-moon sterling ring from somewhere in Oaxaca

3. (This is the ring finger - starting big and moving in)

- sterling ring from the south of France

- Gold signet ring my dad gave my mom when they were 18

- two meaningful sterling bands

Other hand:

1. Sterling double-arched ring from Norway

2. Sterling curved ring from Thailand

Liz Giardina photographed by Emily Weiss in New York on August 10th, 2012.