A letter from the founder

I Got Tired of Rhinestone Pieces Falling Apart. So I Started Making My Own.

Every rhinestone piece I bought looked incredible for about a week. Then the stones started falling off. Every single time.

I'm not talking about Shein. I mean pieces I actually saved up for. Pieces that looked like they had a soul in the photo. They'd arrive, I'd wear them once or twice, and I'd be finding rhinestones on my car seat, on my bathroom floor, on my jacket. Every time I bought one, I told myself this one would be better. Every time I was wrong.

It got to the point where I just stopped trusting the entire category. Heat-glued stones. Cheap fabric. Looks good in pics but fall apart in real life. The whole industry is doing the same thing. So I decided to stop being a buyer and figure out how to make the piece I actually wanted.

I had no experience. I didn't know how to finish a seam. I didn't know what setting method would actually hold under real wear. My first prototype took three weeks and looked like garbage. I burned through batch after batch of crystals testing placement, pressure, and technique. The first cross I got right took six hours by itself, and I ruined it twice before I nailed it.

It took months before I had something I was proud of. Something I could put on and feel different in. Once I had it, I wanted to get the pieces in front of someone who actually lived in the culture I was designing for. Not an influencer. The real deal.

I started reaching out to Chris Brown's team. His stylists. His management. Anyone in his orbit I could find. I sent lookbooks. I sent product photos. I mailed pieces I'm not sure anyone ever opened. For months, nothing. Not a reply. Not a read receipt. Just silence.

I kept making pieces anyway. I told myself if he ever did see this, it had to be undeniable. The kind of quality you feel before you even put it on.

Then one day his stylist finally responded. I sent over a video, every colorway laid flat in natural light, so they could see how the rhinestones actually caught. Red. Jet black. Pink. Blue. Two weeks of silence after that. I thought it was over.

Then he wore the red one on stage. Then the black. Then the pink. Multiple colorways, back to back tour dates, night after night under arena lights. And the internet started zooming in asking the only question that matters in this business: where did he get that?

---

Chris Brown, Kodak Black, and NBA YoungBoy. All in handmade Shelikemyjeans rhinestone cross beanies.

Every piece is still made the exact same way. By me. By hand. One stone at a time. I haven't scaled by cutting corners. I've scaled by making more of the same thing that earned its way onto that stage. A piece built to the standard of jewelry, worn as streetwear, carrying a symbol that says whatever you need it to say.

The cross is yours to define. Faith. Flex. Or just being tired of everything looking the same. What I can promise is that when you put it on, the stones stay. Because I set every single one of them myself.

These don't get restocked on a schedule. I'm one person setting one stone at a time. When a colorway's gone, it's gone. The people who regret it most are always the ones who waited.