• October 11, 1999
• Vol. 52
• No. 14

Let It Bead

Crystal Theory Aside, Zoe Metro's Stella Pace Bracelets Certainly Possess One Special Power: Luring Customers

It's all in the wrist. That's where everyone from Madonna to Keri Russell to schoolgirls across the land are sporting the accessory du jour: so-called powerbead bracelets. Credit New York City designer Zoe Metro, 30, who whipped up the frenzy earlier this year by stringing semiprecious stone beads on an elastic band. According to crystal-healing theories, each stone has a different power: Rose quartz brings the wearer love; aventurine, success; turquoise (worn by The View's Lisa Ling), health. "Who doesn't want some solace, strength and good karma?" asks Elizabeth Schantz, spokeswoman for Manhattan's two trendy Intermix shops, which sell a whopping 500 of Metro's $25 to $30 bracelets a week.

The Princeton-educated Metro (née Heather Aponick), daughter of a defense attorney and his real estate agent wife, started her big beadness just last year, selling Buddhist wooden meditation beads in Chinese takeout containers. But Metro, who had been carrying around blue agate for confidence, didn't find a niche until she used beads carved out of different materials. "I thought, 'Why not make the stones, with all these healing properties, into bracelets?' " she says. Though cheaper knockoffs abound, she figures her line, Stella Pace (Italian for "star of peace"), will gross $1 million by year-end.

Do the stones really work? Metro offers this testimonial: She was wearing rose quartz 10 months ago when she met her boyfriend, Gerry Scanlon, 32, who is launching a chain of juice bars in London. "We don't ask you to believe or not believe," she says. "It looks good regardless."