Bucks for Baubles

Designer Alexis Bittar, shown here at a Fashion Night Out event, has a deal with private equity investors that will help the brand expand.

Image: Facebook/Alexis Bittar

Alexis Bittar, a jewelry entrepreneur who started selling his wares on New York City streets, is getting some interest from one block that can help raise his brand's cred: Wall Street.

TSG Consumer Partners LLC, a private equity firm specializing in branded consumer companies, announced today that it has entered into a partnership with the eponymous company Alexis Bittar that will allow it to continue to build its market share and extend its product line both in the United States and abroad.

Terms of the investment were not disclosed, but founder Alexis Bittar, who started out selling jewelry in New York’s SoHo neighborhood in 1991 and was discovered by Bergdorf Goodman’s fashion director the next year, said in a statement that he will continue to have a “substantial ownership stake in the company” and will still be running the business.

That’s probably a good thing since the designer—whose following includes first lady Michelle Obama and celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Madonna, Cameron Diaz, and Alicia Keys—has plenty on his plate. The brand operates seven Alexis Bittar boutiques in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago and designs and manufactures its products at its own facility in Brooklyn, New York.

TSG, which manages over $2.7 billion in equity capital, has also invested in Smashbox Cosmetics and Vitamin Water.