Cleveland-made Bunny Paige Jewelry to show at New York Fashion Week (photos) - cleveland.com (blog)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - For the third time, Cleveland based jewelry company Bunny Paige is headed to New York Fashion Week. Designer Lauren Tatum and her business partner Dan Houseman will be showing a few pieces and producing one of the week's shows.
Bunny Paige is the brainchild of Tatum, 34 of Cleveland, who created the brand in 2012. She grew tired of her life in a cubicle, working in insurance so she quit and took a trip to Asia. Inspired by Japanese and South Korean street style, she returned to Cleveland and got to work.
Her pieces are unique and edgy with a sense of humor and glam. She utilizes colorful and sparkling Swarovski crystals in most of her creations which include her popular, pop culture hearts which come in a variety of sizes and colors and many are edged with metal spikes, adding a chic, punk-inspired feel with a nod to her high school Goth days in Shaker Heights.
Houseman, 34, describes Bunny Paige as an alternative fashion lifestyle brand. They also create embellished sunglasses and other accessories. He handles the company's marketing, networking and IT as well as helps in production as all of the pieces are made in their 78th Street Studios gallery in the heart of the Gordon Square Arts District.
Bunny Paige, named for two of Tatum's lifelong nicknames caught the attention of fashionable consumers early on after Tatum started an Etsy shop. She moved on to local boutiques and craft shows and then her own website where she began selling pieces outside of Cleveland. Bunny Paige jewelry has shipped to Europe, Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Tatum makes her pieces by hand creating the molds, mixing the dyes and casting each resin heart. Each hand poured piece is sanded and polished before individual spikes and crystals are applied. Prices range from $5 to $500 and can go higher for precious metals and gemstones.
Through networking and hard work Tatum and Houseman met Ilaria Niccolini, the CEO of FTL Moda a large producer of fashion shows and other editorial productions, showroom representation, talent management and public relations. They hit it off and the pair have since worked on several projects including assisting on some Marie Claire magazine cover shoots. Houseman is currently the director of emerging technology and Tatum heads up the Midwest and western U.S. sales and advises on jewelry and accessories for FTL Moda.
On Sunday February 11, they'll be back at New York Fashion Week working on the production side of things presenting what they refer to as a multi-sensory, mixed-format runway show featuring two designers. They are Fllumae and Bereshift. Fllumae featured Bunny Paige jewelry last year on the runway at the Dubai Modest Fashion Week.
Tatum and Houseman say they will be handling the logistics, styling, overall vision, execution and even the construction of the show's space. The event also includes a virtual reality experience that features some Bunny Paige pieces.
The pair have also worked on other exciting fashion projects and have enjoyed some exposure in several magazines where their jewelry was worn in photographs or as mentions of Bunny Paige. The magazines include Rebelicious, Elegant Magazine, L'Official Singapore, L'Official Thailand, Vogue Arabia who named their embellished sunglasses the Accessory of the Year, Vogue Swiss, Marie Claire Malaysia, Rogue, Huf, and they've had work appear in a couple of music videos and on the television show Gotham.
For more information visit the Bunny Paige website and check out what they're working on @TheBunnyPaige on Twitter or @bunny_paige on Instagram. Also find Bunny Paige pieces at Retro Rosie, a vintage shop at 17110 Detroit Road in Lakewood.
