In the Works 002: The Lighting Designer

American garment craft was built on workwear. Plain Jane New York was built on that same foundation, creating the modern wardrobe essentials that working women actually need. By women, for women.

IN THE WORKS is a series about the women who get things done. Each edition goes inside what she's working on, where she goes, and what she wears through all of it.

Photos by Zaina Mahmoud.

One fateful Sunday last November, I saw Allison post that she'd be participating in a makers market in our neighborhood. We'd been internet friends for awhile, so I made it a point to swing by. I figured I'd introduce myself. Say ‘hi’ and ‘bye’, in and out.

I ended up loitering at her booth for nearly two hours. During those two hours, I met her boyfriend, her friends, and watched as dozens of people ogled her work. And once you see it, you'll immediately understand why.

Allison is the exact person who comes to mind when you picture the coolest creative you know who actually makes a living from their work. Her resume reads like a tour through the roles that shape great brands (creative producer, creative director, art director, brand designer, graphic designer) at household names and IYKYK brands alike.

And then there's Studio Dowd.

Studio Dowd is, at its crux, jewelry for your home. That is my mission right now: creating these beautiful moments where you take pause and admire something that lives in your house, something that brings joy and charm and color and creativity and spark into your home. It really feels like you are decorating your home in jewelry, which I love, because I love playing with jewelry as part of my own personal style on my body. Being able to play with jewelry inside the house is a concept I think is so much fun and one I haven't really seen that much of.

Studio Dowd is charm, it's movement, it's color, it's creativity, it's play. It's jewelry for your home. And it sparks a lot of joy. When I walk around my house and see the things I have made, they genuinely make my day better. Anyone who is a fan of what I'm building can take a piece of that joy home with them too.

For her lighting pieces, Allison's process can be separated into two distinct phases: Before accessorizing and after accessorizing. We're here to capture both parts of the process in the two places where Allison makes magic: the studio and her home. We start at the studio.

On the day of our shoot, Zaina and I met up with Allison at Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint (so ‘Girls’ coded) before commuting to CLAY SPACE together, a hidden gem she can't not share.

It's in a more industrial area of Greenpoint, extremely well-run, super organized, and the members in there are all very talented. A lot of ceramicists I meet haven't heard of it yet. They have classes and memberships, and I spend a lot of time there. I don't want them to blow up. But I also want them to blow up.

And hidden gem is underselling it. The space is massive and full of windows that bathe the whole place in natural light. We got there early on Sunday morning and thought we were the first ones in, though it's hard to say for sure in a space like that: shelves and shelves of finished and unfinished ceramic works, many different rooms for glazing, wheel throwing, hand building, firing, and so on.

Allison is wearing an outfit that feels very Allison: a Plain Jane New York tee, jeans, leather loafers, cool silver frames, and a sporty headband.

On Style

Plain Jane New York: Describe your style in three words.

Allison Dowd: I play a careful line between masculine and feminine — that juxtaposition of something tight and something baggy, something lace and something denim. I'd also say sporty. I love an Oakley sunglass or a sporty silhouette paired with more highbrow pieces. And bold — very bright and textural. I love playing with patterns, colors, and texture.

PJNY: Do you see those qualities come through in your work?

AD: Definitely. I think what people gravitate toward in my ceramics is that they're more playful, colorful, and graphic than the standard ceramic. A lot of that comes from my graphic design background, but also just the way I move through the world. Very color- and pattern-oriented. I love incorporating that into the ceramics too.

PJNY: What are you thinking about when you're getting dressed to go to the studio?

AD: I'm often thinking about a couple things. One of them is comfort. I'm doing a lot of running around, standing up, sitting down, so I want to make sure that I'm comfortable and flexible in whatever I'm wearing. Two, I'm creating a lot of things and I want the confidence to make things that feel true to me. So oftentimes I really want to dress in a way that makes me feel good about myself and confident enough to create. And that often entails something that feels a little bit sexy. My partner, Indy, always jokes that some of my sexiest outfits are worn to Clay [Space]. But I want to feel sexy, I want to feel confident, and I want to feel comfortable when I'm at Clay. I gravitate towards workwear that can go through the wash, that can bear some clay and glaze, and is a little bit tougher. So oftentimes I'm looking for natural fibers, cottons, a lot of denim and corduroy, things I can throw in the wash after clay, get a little bit muddy, and it's totally fine.

PJNY: You grew up between Hawaii and Southern California. How has your style changed since moving to New York?

AD: One of the things that really brought me to New York was the freedom of expression here. When I first visited, I was enamored by how many people were expressing themselves in so many different ways. Moving here gave me the confidence to experiment a lot more — to try out different styles and see what I really gravitated towards. Growing up between Hawaii and Southern California, everything is so much more casual. A kitten heel there is basically dressed up. Moving to New York, I've loved being able to be a little fancier and more experimental. I can wear a fancy dress and heels just to go buy groceries, and that feels fun and chic. It's really changed my style in that way.

PJNY: Alright, what are you wearing today?

AD: Obviously my Plain Jane t-shirt. I have The Short on in a small. It's my favorite sleeve length, which I've heard it's slept on, so don't sleep on it.

PJNY: Love that you love The Short.

AD: It's extremely versatile, I love the way it sits on my body… I love mixing masculinity and femininity, and the juxtaposition between those worlds shows up a lot in how I dress. That longer sleeve gives a classic, slightly boyish cut, but I love that boyish cut in a tight silhouette. It's this mixture of masculine and feminine, and I feel really confident in that in-between.

PJNY: What's been heavy in your wardrobe rotation lately?

AD: Denim, obsessively. Jean jacket, jean shorts, denim button-down, dark wash, light wash — just denim everything. And vintage sunglasses. A jean and a vintage sunglass is basically what I've been wearing every single day.

On Work

PJNY: How did you go from working in more corporate graphic design into lighting design and ceramics?

AD: I've always had an affinity for lamps. If you look around my apartment, I think I have like 20 different lamps that I've collected just from me living on this earth. And I was really interested in working in a material that was organic. I love creating, and I love creating digitally, but I just wanted a balance of working with my actual hands. And so that brought me to clay. And once I got the hang of clay, I was really imagining myself making lighting out of clay — and marrying the world of interior design and clay is two worlds that I've been really interested in. I got into lighting design from that whole journey.

PJNY: Tell me more about accessorizing your ceramic pieces.

AD: I love accessorizing myself, and I just like the concept of charms and bringing personality into objects through charms and beads. And I've also always loved pearls. Growing up in Hawaii, it's such a big part of the culture there. So I kind of discovered playing around with clay and jewelry and almost making it like jewelry for your home. I think accessorizing your home is something that's really fun and personal. And I love this kind of masculine, rigid clay form that can meet these really feminine and fun and flirty, moving beads — like this guy.

PJNY: What do you love most about working in New York?

AD: I think the mixture of so many backgrounds and so many perspectives. I think something that's really incredible about New York is that there are so many industries that there isn't one that's predominant. There's fashion, there's finance, there's architecture, there's painting, there's ceramics. Like, you can find an expert at almost anything that lives in New York. And so I think being a creative and working in New York, you just get exposed to the best of the best kind of art and the most talented people in their own lane. And I think that kind of electricity of talent also really inspires me. Where I see people around me making beautiful things, and it makes it feel like I can make more beautiful things as well. And it makes me just inspired to create, being around so many people that are creating every day and creating so many different and new things.

PJNY: The piece that's within your grasp right now. Tell us about it.

AD: My latest chandelier — the one right above my head. I think it's my favorite piece I've ever made to date. It is a brown bear clay base, a very organic form — I laid it atop a form and allowed it to be this very flowy, organic ceramic piece. So it's made with brown bear clay and clear glaze. But what makes it so special are these beautiful long pink ribbed handmade glass pieces I found in Lisbon at a flea market, from a deconstructed chandelier. All of this glass has its own life — I don't know how old they are or where they lived before I found them, but these pieces are one-of-a-kind and I haven't been able to find them anywhere else. And then marrying that with freshwater rice pearls — it's just all of these elements coming together that makes it so beautiful and effervescent and truly one of a kind. This is one of my favorite pieces I've ever made.

PJNY: I know you're a big traveler and that your travel influences your work. Can you speak to that?

AD: I think exposing yourself to things that are unknown to you is really one of the only ways to expand your vision and understand bigger worlds out there. Having grown up across so many places and experienced so many different cultures — especially coming from a mixed background — travel has bled into so much of my artistic experience. Going to places and seeing the materials they work with, whether it's Yakushima in Japan and they work with a lot of cedarwood, or Lisbon and they work with a lot of tile and ceramic, or places in Italy that work with a lot of glass or leather — I love that different places have so much materiality baked into them. And when I visit, going to local thrift stores, vintage shops, flea markets, and finding these one-of-a-kind pieces that originate from people who are experts in that craft — I've brought so much of that into my own world. A lot of the beads I use are from Lisbon flea markets, from deconstructed chandeliers, where they are experts at beautiful glasswork. So I think going to new places, really immersing myself in what they're experts at, and bringing that back and reflecting it into my own work in a way that feels like me has been really, really fun to experience.

On Life in New York City

PJNY: What does a typical weekday look like for you lately?

AD: I always make a coffee in the morning. I have a new espresso machine and I've been loving experimenting with different syrups — vanilla bean, salted maple. So coffee first, and then usually a run or a workout to get my body moving. Then I journal, which — shout out to The Artist's Way. I really believe in manifestation, in talking about your dreams and expelling any anxieties for the day. It really sets me off on the right foot. From there I'll either head into work — I work as an art director in Manhattan — or I'll go to the studio to grab or finish up pieces. And I'm a big cook, so I'm usually making something when I get home: poke, miso salmon, salted chicken thighs. Something fun. I love cooking and hosting — it brings the community together. To wind down, if I have the time, I love to take a bath. I was raised by the ocean. Being in water calms me down and washes away the day. That's what my days are looking like right now.

PJNY: Where do you take someone visiting?

AD: I definitely hit all the parks because I feel like the park culture here is unmatched — that's where all the energy is, especially in the summer. So I'll hit up McCarren, Prospect, Domino, Marsha P, Central Park if we're feeling like going up there. The parks have a lot of really great New York energy. Definitely some wine bars too. I like Sauced, Plus de Vin, Rude Mouth — there are so many amazing ones where you can just grab a bottle and stay out in the sunlight in the backyard. And definitely biking around. I'm a big citi biker. I always take them over the Williamsburg Bridge because when you ride over that bridge, you feel like the main character — and that's really what New York is all about, feeling like a main character everywhere you go.

PJNY: Favorite vintage or shopping spot right now?

AD: Mother of Junk — it's that spot on Driggs, the big crazy thrift store with the furniture. It's wild in there but I love going in and finding frames. They just have so much crazy stuff and you can spend a long time in there picking up random things. I love seeing all the vintage chairs, dressers, lamps, beads, frames — that one's kind of up there for me right now. And then there's a strip in the Lower East Side I go to and just bop around. And a lot of online — I've been a big eBay girl lately. When I find something I love or I'm really into a designer or a silhouette, I'll try to source it on eBay.

PJNY: Favorite place to eat right now?

AD: It might be a basic answer, but I am a Café Mogador girl through and through. I love their chicken tagine with the prune and apricot sauce — it just nourishes something inside me. Top it off with a little baklava and a mint tea and I'm set for the whole day. My favorite restaurant.

PJNY: What's one place that feels very New York to you?

AD: The Williamsburg Bridge. I spend so much of my time on that bridge. I was training for the New York Marathon last November and all of my long runs were just back and forth on that bridge. You see so many different people from all walks of life — biking, commuting, going on strolls — and it just captures this New York essence. I love that it's the bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and that you can see the entire skyline on both sides. The Manhattan skyline is obviously so iconic, but then you can see the Brooklyn skyline, which I think is just really charming and industrial. Whenever I'm on it, I take a moment to be like — wow, I live in New York and I love it here.

PJNY: What part of the city do you find yourself spending the most time?

AD: Greenpoint. I have a lot of friends there, my clay studio is there, and a lot of my favorite food spots, parks, and vintage stores are up there. It's kind of my home base right now. There's a new vintage store called Glory — she and her mom have been collecting for the last 20 years. I can't leave without getting something. And there's a new rotisserie chicken and wine spot. Very slim menu — rotisserie and wine. That's kind of all I need.

PJNY: What's something you do every week without fail?

AD: Journal. If not every day, then almost every day. I'm also a big sauna person — I feel like it's really good for your health, so I sauna every week. I work out every week. I go to the studio every week, if not multiple times a week. Working with clay is really grounding, especially during a heavy laptop week. And I watch Survivor. Every Wednesday. We're a big Survivor household, so that's been a fun tradition.

PJNY: So you sauna?

AD: I do. Actually, one of the best sauna experiences of my life was at a Russian bathhouse in the city — I saunad next to Justin Bieber for two hours. He called me a machine when I walked out of the cold plunge. I even have a mug with me and Justin Bieber on it that says “damn girl, you're a machine.” Probably the best sauna day of my life. That was pre-Bieberchella, so when I saw him on the big screen, I was like — the sauna has really been healing him. I think about it all the time.

PJNY: Best place to meet up with friends?

AD: I've been loving Plus de Vin in Williamsburg. It's a little wine bar with light bites, and they have the best chocolate mousse I've ever had — a sprinkle of sea salt and olive oil on top. I'm not usually a dessert person, but this dish changed my life. It tastes like a brownie. They also have a great roast chicken and amazing natural wine. And there's a back garden that's never busy, so you can show up with a group of ten and just post up back there.

PJNY: Best place to spend time alone?

AD: The Bronx Botanical Garden. I had a five-hour solo date there once and it was one of the best days of my life. I just walked around the indoor garden during an orchid show — stunning florals. Especially in a New York winter, when you're craving warmth and nature but it's freezing out, the Bronx Botanical Garden has everything you need.

PJNY: What's your matcha spot?

AD: Kijitora. I'm a sucker for their strawberry matcha — it's basically like ice cream. That's my go-to right now.

PJNY: Coffee spot?

AD: Puerto Rico Coffee Roasters beans, but in my own espresso machine. They're on St. Mark's and they have the best beans.

PJNY: Favorite neighborhood right now — and one other people should know about?

AD: I've been spending a lot more time in Ridgewood. I feel like that neighborhood is slept on — it has more of a real neighborhood vibe, great dance venues, amazing food, beautiful furniture stores. But also anything close to Prospect Park is the best in the summer. A lot of my friends are in Fort Greene right now, and the bakeries over there are incredible — the food scene, the wine scene, the shopping. I'm staying very Brooklyn-based this summer.

Rapid Fire

Favorite season in the city? Summer.

Best walk in your neighborhood? The Williamsburg waterfront or Berry Street when it's closed down.

One thing you never leave home without? Headphones.

Something you're excited about right now? I think beads. Glass beads in particular.

Something you've been listening to a lot lately? I've been listening to Frank Ocean a lot, both of his albums.

Current obsession? This is niche, but it's a new Trader Joe's dessert. It's like a caramel Samoa cluster on cashews. And I love Samoas cookies, so that's kind of been my latest obsession. And Survivor Season 50.

Your perfect NYC day in 3 stops? Coffee, park, wine bar. Perfect.

Thanks for reading.