SALT LAKE CITY — Designing for his first fashion show, Jared Gold understood that a unique piece of jewelry could draw a lot of attention to his work and the wearer.
His eye-catching creations are alive. And they're cockroaches — 3-inch-long Madagascar hissing cockroaches bejeweled with Swarovski crystals and attached by a chain to a pin. The "roach brooches" are free to crawl around on a blouse or jacket, attached to a limiting lead. They hiss when upset and, unless the wearer is careful about the roach's feeding schedule, they can soil your couture clothing.
A curiosity for sure, but when Gold revived the idea this year for his Salt Lake City boutique even he was a little surprised by the result. He can't keep them in stock.
"Oh, there they are," exclaimed Linda Sanders, who teaches fourth-graders at Lehi Elementary School, as she gently picked up a roach. Sanders had made the nearly hour-long drive from her home in Orem to see the brooches at Gold's Salt Lake City store.
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"I love all animals," Sanders said, as a roach climbed all over her denim jacket. "The teachers would hate me."
But within 10 minutes, Sanders was signing a receipt for the purchase of her roach, attached to a chain and pinned to her lapel.
"The kids will love it," said Sanders, who has a tarantula and two chinchillas in her classroom.
On a busy Friday evening, many of those visiting the Black Chandelier clothing store were there to see the roaches. Gold and his cockroaches also were recently featured on an episode of the reality show "America's Next Top Model" on the UPN network.
Taking the mundane or grotesque and making it pretty, or taking something pretty and making it slightly disturbing, is what Gold says interests him as a designer.
It takes about an hour to decorate a cockroach. Gold's head seamstress, Aja Davis, is the design studio's "roach wrangler."
"We have our secret way that we prep them. They excrete this wax that no adhesives will stick to," Gold said. "After months of trial and error, we finally figured out how to get jewels to stick to them."
The jewels and clasp are attached to the roach's hood, or carapace, a hard shell that covers its head. Gold says they are all very gentle with the roaches, and he doesn't even like to make them hiss. The roaches' hissing is a defense mechanism, a noise they make when they feel threatened.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals finds the roach brooches an inappropriate form of human decoration.
"It gives a new, sad meaning to the term 'fashion victim,' " said PETA spokesman Michael McGraw. "Roaches will inherit the Earth, and if it's between the desperate people who wear them and the roaches, our money's on the roaches."
Gold says he hasn't heard any complaints from animal-rights activists. The roaches are treated well and sold more as a pet than jewelry, he said. "They're your friend, and they're a pet," Gold said.
Gold only uses male roaches — females bite — which he gets from Los Angeles breeder. The roaches sell for about $40 in the Salt Lake City store or $80 on the Internet, including overnight shipping, for other parts of the United States.
The roaches are fairly hardy and can live up to four days without food or water, Gold said. He recommends giving them a nice dark place to live when they're not being worn. They eat fresh fruit, bananas are a favorite, and they drink water from a saturated paper towel or cotton ball. The most common cause of death is dehydration, Gold said.
If well cared for, the roaches can live for up to a year. But they do molt, and it's possible you could end up with a plain old hissing cockroach after it's shed its shell.
Gold recommends against feeding the roach a day before wearing it — to avoid any unwanted excretions.
