The Tiny Boutique: Our Grand Opening & Pop-up Show!

Between the ages of 5 and 12 my biggest passion was building miniature spaces.

As a kid, everyone thought I loved playing with Barbie dolls. But what very few people knew is that what I really loved was, building spaces for my Barbies.

I was never interested in getting the actual Barbie house or the Barbie furniture, because in my childish mind they looked plasticky and cheap. Instead, I would save and spend all my money at my local craft shop for materials to build Barbie homes, furniture, offices, accessories, everything from scratch. And all to perfect scale and as realistic looking as possible. To give you a sense of how much I loved this, one time (I think I was 8 years old), I secretly cut a piece of my mom’s wedding dress because I needed a very specific kind of fabric for window treatments. I almost lost my head for that.

 

So, imagine how amazing it was when this proposal fell on my lap.

I was invited by a beautiful high-end boutique in Philadelphia to host a Pop-Up show for Valentine’s day showcasing my jewelry, but most importantly to create a small display that was “different” or “surprising”, with complete creative free range. My recent earring collections have been miniature-versions of real-life designer shoes. So of course, creating a “tiny boutique” to showcase my brand-new 2016 shoe-earring collection was just perfect.

 

So here I was all these years later, creating a small space again, not just for fun, but for business 🙂

 

To give you a sense of the scale, keep in mind that each shoe is slightly smaller than an american quarter coin.

I had two main limitations: First, the size. It had to be a small boutique. Second, it had to be simple and easy to navigate, so that our visitors could easily grab any shoe they liked to try on, without fearing that they’d break something.

Besides our shoe-earrings, everything in our tiny boutique (besides the acrylic display “tables” and the glass Display closet) was also handmade (walls, hooks, hangers, made-to-scale shoe boxes, shoe stands, earrings stands, clothes, tiny jewelry, area rug, chandelier, planters, etc, etc).

 

Let me give you a quick tour!

The Boutique

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SHOES

Most of the shoes you’ll see are tiny tribute replicas from the designers’ 2015/2016 Spring/Summer Shoe Collections. Each shoe is smaller than an american quarter coin, completely handmade of PVC clay, with strong brass-clip-ons hardware, so that everyone can wear them quickly and easily.

You’d be surprised by how detailed they look in person. They’re incredibly comfortable, light, and are bound to make a statement. Absolutely adorable. They all come in their own handmade-to-scale shoe boxes and secure packaging.

 

We’ll start my with current favorite designer house: Clover Canyon.

As someone who loves heels but can’t walk in them, I have a very soft spot for wedges. But not just any kind of wedges. To say that I adore Clover Canyon’s 2015 and 2016 wedges is an understatement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next designer house I chose for inspiration is Fendi. An Italian luxury fashion house whose specialities include fur, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, fragrances, eyewear, timepieces and accessories.

Both shoes that you’ll see below are part of their 2015 Spring collection. They might be a year-old, but I still find this particular design as classy and modern as can be.

 

 

 

Victoria Beckham’s designs keep getting better and better! Despite being known as someone who wears heels all the time, she has developed an amazing line of flats that look both approachable, but unique and beautiful at the same time.

These two designs are my favorites of her recent collections.

 

 

THE POP-UP SHOW

Let me just start by saying THANK YOU to those of you who came to visit us. It was such an honor to meet you in person! Thank you so much!

It was a crazy-busy couple of hours with lots of people coming in and out, and it was so much fun to see so many of you trying them on and taking your tiny-shoes home.

 

As is the case in all these events, it was so busy that I never got a chance to take some pictures. Instead, the pictures you’ll see below are ones that were taken by several of our visitors who were kind enough to share some of them with me.

 

This was taken 2 minutes before we opened the doors while still setting things up!

 

 

 

I have ZERO pictures of the event itself. So, if it wasn’t for Jill Michaels, one of our beautiful visitors that day and her spontaneous decision to e-mail me some of the pictures she took with her phone, it would all be just a memory. Thank you! And if you happen to have been at our event as well and have some pictures of your own, I’d loooove for you to share them with me.

 

I created a very limited number of samples for our collection, and we still have a few left that can be yours!

Thank you for indulging me with your valuable time. I hope you enjoyed it and would LOVE to read your thoughts/comments/questions in the comment section below.

Stay well, stay happy and stay healthy. See you in two weeks !!