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Maybe Chads Will Become a Girl’s New Best Friend

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

We knew it would happen sooner or later: chad jewelry--those infamous, partially punched ballot scraps immortalized in brushed silver earrings, cuff links and necklaces.

Fledgling e-commerce jewelry site Enjewel.com has created, in honor of election 2000, a sterling silver “butterfly ballot with hanging chad necklace” ($125), “pregnant chad cuff links” ($100) and “dimpled chad earrings” ($100), created by jewelry designer Thomas Kurilla.

The idea, according to Enjewel.com Chief Executive Shelley Ginsberg, was conceived on the last Tuesday of November, designed the next day, with prototypes ready Friday and the actual pieces up for sale by Sunday.

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“We thought it was so fun and so topical,” he said, adding that the company is hoping to send some samples to Al Gore and George W. Bush.

The New York-based e-commerce site, which offers brand-name merchandise from Chopard, Lagos and others, was launched just seven weeks ago.

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Menswear designer Gene Meyer, known for his bright colors and irreverent approach, was the talk of New York Fashion Week in September when he showed a collection he knew would never be manufactured or sold.

His financial backers, Mondo di Marco, had closed him down in July, but Myer went forward with the show “because this is what I do and love. This is all I know,” he said at the time.

Well, Myer is back on track. He’s forged a partnership with a new backer, Miami menswear executive Adolfo Skrande. The two are creating a new company, Gruppo di Disegno.

A two-time Council of Fashion Designers of America award recipient who worked for Anne Klein and Geoffrey Beene before striking out on his own in 1989, Myer recently purchased a home in Miami and plans to show his fall 2001 collection in New York on Feb. 9.

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A fashion-related exhibition worth checking out: “Factoring Beauty,” on view at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum through Jan. 28, is a look at how makeup guru Max Factor marketed his famous cosmetics line using images of film actresses, including Bette Davis, Jean Harlow and Lana Turner.

With more than 40 original photographs dating from the 1920s to the 1950s, the exhibit traces the beginnings of the phenomenon of celebrities as product endorsers.

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