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Last Updated:
Mar 19th, 2008 - 07:43:02 |
Detroit Dollface
Funk, Punk, Ready to Wear
Local jewelry designers Angela and Rose Tedesco couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate name for their line, Detroit Dollface. Not just because the darling, yet daring, sisters resemble real life dolls with their porcelain skin, coal-colored, perfectly coifed hair and crimson-stained pouts, but because their handmade jewelry evokes a fantasy land of feelings, making the pieces both enchanting and enticing.
The girls, each clad in Bettie Page meets 2007 dresses (their own designs), John Fluevog heels and vintage sunglasses and handbags, spend much time scouring the Motor City and beyond for textiles for their pieces. Rose, 24, who recently graduated from Wayne State University in fashion design, works full-time as a costume seamstress at the Detroit Opera House. Her sister, Angela, 20, has clothing retail experience under her shiny belt and plans to attend Wayne in the fall to study fashion design.
The pieces play with the contrast of an array of eccentric parts, from a flirty vintage heart charm, repainted if the original color was dingy to hand-glued Swarovski crystals, bow-shaped brooches or ladylike pearls, matched with a heavy chain, skull embellishment or tiny butcher knife charm with splattered red paint to appear like blood. A necklace, usually requiring the most work, may take up to two hours to make.
The Italian sisters from Clinton Township are devout fashion followers, clued in on all aspects of the industry, from design to what’s in the pages of their favorite magazines: BUST and Women’s Wear Daily. Even as young teens from the eastside, the Tedesco sisters spent time shopping in, according to them, a once “more punk” downtown Royal Oak, and they miss stores like Cinderella’s Attic and The Cat’s Meow.
“I’m a little more punk,” Angela says, “and she’s a little more retro. We’re each other’s muses.” While the eccentric faux blood might be a bit much for some, the Tedesco sisters have certainly found their niche.
With their adorable personal style turning heads, Rose quoted Mae West to describe some reactions to her unique fashion flavor, “It’s better to be looked over than overlooked.” | RDW
Look over the Detroit Dollface Jewelry at the Detroit Urban Craft Fair, Saturday, August 4 from 2-8 p.m. at the Majestic Theatre. More info: myspace.com/detroitdollfacejewelry, detroiturbancraftfair.com or email the gals at detroitdollfaces@yahoo.com.
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