David Spada

David Spada (December 5, 1961 – May 13, 1996)[1][2] was a jewelry designer in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s, and was the inventor of freedom rings. Spada also designed and fabricated several anodized aluminium bras and accessories for Grace Jones, which were worn by her in performances, and also in photographs in which she modelled body paint designed and applied by Keith Haring.

Spada attended Parsons The New School for Design in New York City in the early to mid 1980s, and also taught jewelry there. He ran a production jewelry business consisting mainly of designs hand fabricated from anodized aluminium wire from his studio Casa di Spada at 204 Avenue B near Tompkins Square Park through the 1990s, and was friendly with many notable denizens of the infamous Lower East Side scene of pre Giuliani New York, among them Keith Haring, Grace Jones, Lady Miss Kier, Lady Bunny, International Chrysis and many other drag performers of that era.

The breakout moment of Spada's business success came with The March on Washington, during which the freedom rings proved so popular that he was obliged to fly back to New York, pick up the remainder of his stock from his studio, and then return immediately to Washington, D.C., where he sold the entirety of his stock of freedom rings during the remainder of the march. After that, his business was focused largely on producing freedom rings.

References

  1. "Memorials SPADA, DAVID". The New York Times.
  2. "David Spada". Hartford Courant.

External links

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