THE GOOD LIFE
ST YL E
Head First
Guyana native Akash Prasad conceived a crown-inspired jewelry line in his adopted hometown BY MICHELLE BOUDIN | PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUSTY WILLIAMS
JEWELRY DESIGNER AKASH PRASAD, who launched the popular Crown City line in September of last year, was terrified on his first day of school in Queens, New York, two decades ago. At 15, his family had just moved from Guyana, a South American country of just 800,000 people. “The Russians were with the Russians, the Indians were with the Indians, and the Black kids were with the Blacks,” he recalls. “I didn’t have a community. There was no one else there from Guyana.” In 2018, the 33-year-old started over again when he and his wife left New York and moved to Charlotte with their first child. Prasad stayed on as vice president
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of New Jersey-based Ace Watches and served as a design consultant to a handful of national retailers that include Dr. Jay’s, PCX Clothing, and Fashion Nova. But they wanted to raise their son in a more family-friendly city, where Prasad could eventually build a creative business. “I noticed that many other awesome brands already had the apparel end covered,” he says, “but there was a void in the jewelry market, and I saw it as a way to creatively contribute to the fashion fabric of Charlotte.” Crown City remained a dream until early 2020, following the death of Kobe Bryant. Prasad says it was Bryant’s
“Mamba Mentality” that inspired him to begin planning his online venture. “He achieved so much and put his all into every project,” he says. “He was also drafted by Charlotte back in ’96, so I had all the motivation I needed.” Prasad had already worked in the jewelry business for more than a decade. His college best friend’s father owned a watch store in Manhattan. In 2014, Prasad and his friend helped launch that store’s jewelry line, focusing on what Prasad calls “trendy urban pieces popular among the rap and hip-hop crowd.” For his own line, he wanted to work with gold- or rhodium-plated stainless steel.
