American born Kenneth Jay Lane began his career in fashion in the art department at Vogue in 1954. KJL moved on to become Vivier's assistant and designed shoes for Delman and Dior in Paris. In 1963 he started making jewelry with the rhinestones he used to decorate shoes and quickly his career changed to jewelry designer. His success came from his ability to copy expensive and his inventive way to mixing plastic with semi precious stones. He has influenced many jewelry designers and his pieces are highly collectible as well as wearable.