What makes a FashionBride different from any other bride? Well, it’s the continuous search of the best retailers in town and the best designers there are! 

We start the week with Nicole Joy Leibman, the designer behind Little Purple Cow, a brand that will make your wedding attire look stunning with perfect matching jewelry. Enjoy and discover your way to become a FashionBride!

 1. When did you decide to become a designer and why did you find this domain interesting?

Everything started at the beginning of the recession when I lost my job practicing law. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened because it led me to creating this line. Basically, I was playing around with some ornate spoons that I found in my family’s basement. I have always known since a child that I wanted to pursue something creative in the design field, but it was never clear whether it was clothes, or jewelry. I think the passion I found for designing jewelry was more or an organic progression.

2. Talk us trough the first years of you work. Maybe you could tell us what did change in time? Are your designs different from the very beginning?

The first piece I worked on was a spoon bracelet. It took about 3 or 4 tries to finally come up with the “Spoonlet” design we have now. The very first version we had was a huge spiral and looked like a giant ring but we soon realized that you couldn’t get it over your wrist–a huge goof on our part!

As far as the rings, we based them off of what was done in the 1970’s, which seems novel to the younger generation even though they were so popular back then. My father really wanted to make ours more unique than the traditional spiral that he remembered. That’s why a few of our rings actually curve up. Our newest rings are even edgier and bigger. They go across multiple fingers which I think adds a really interesting element. And they also work with the current trends which call for bigger statement pieces.

3. Why should a bride-to-be choose one of your jewelry?

I think we offer something truly unique that bride’s cant find anywhere else. Our custom pieces are soo personal that they really add a special touch. In addition, we try and make it easy for the brides to choose their pieces so we help take finding bridesmaids gifts off their never-ending checklist. As a bonus of course, the pieces are so affordable that bride’s love that!

4. Do tell us a bit more about your inspiration sources for your collection.

My two nieces have really been the inspiration for the storybook ring collection. After I had started the spoon rings, I was over eating dinner and saw their cute little plastic baby spoons with Dora the Explorer and the Disney Characters and thought “What if they had silver spoons with these characters?”. I started sourcing old silver children’s spoons with different characters and it just seemed to work so well. These spoons had so much detail — a lot of them have the characters name written out – that they’ve been a huge success.

5. Do you also work with brides or you just try to give them the best of your designs in your collections?

Originally, we wanted the line to be a kind of Netflix for jewelry—customers would send us their silverware and we would turn it into jewelry, and set it back. As time went on, we realized that there were a number of problems with this as a business model. The concept evolved into the collections we have now, which work great as bridesmaids’ gifts. Even still, we wanted to keep true to the original idea and leave an option open for special, customized products. This is the service we now offer as wonderful bridesmaid’s gifts or mementos for the brides themselves.

The first bride I worked with was a childhood friend. I met with her mother and we went through a number of family heirlooms and settled on a sterling baby toothbrush. We then picked out different stones that would go with the bridesmaid’s dresses. What’s nice is that the bride or her mother gets to keep the original heirloom-turned-ring as a family keepsake. All the bridesmaids get a replica of the final piece so they have something that’s’ so personal, its actually like a piece of the bride. Unlike a lot of other bridesmaid’s gifts, the rings are fashionable and cool pieces they actually want to wear.

Another thing we do is create mementos for the bride. A lot of brides still pick out their traditional wedding sterling silverware pattern. Yet for the most part, it stays in a chest and gets used about once a year. Brides love the beauty of their patterns. Yet rarely ever get to enjoy it. What we do is make a special ring or bracelet from their pattern, so they can enjoy the beautiful detail in something wearable.

6. Have you got any designs you’ve created and that has a very special meaning for you? Can you describe it or can show us a picture?

I’ve got lots of things coming out, but I’ll have to wait to share them.  I think the Remington Bibb was a really big moment for me. I had the concept for the typewriter necklace for the longest time in my mind that it was almost a year from when I had the idea until I found the typewriter. And then the feeling six months after that when it was finished was just so satisfying, that I was able to create such a one-of-a-kind piece that existed literally only in my imagination.

7. From your point of view, how should a perfect bride look like?

Like the best, and most beautiful version of herself.

8. And tell us what would you give her and, maybe, other brands can’t.

The personalization. You can get a lot of things engraved or monogrammed, but our custom pieces really offer something so nostalgic and sentimental. When you wear it you know there is so much meaning and significance behind it. As a bridesmaid, you know that you share such an intimate piece of this bride’s past and future.

9. Last but not least, do you have any advice for FashionBride readers?

Don’t lose site of the big picture in all the planning. Its not about the planning and the details, its about the person waiting for you at the end of the aisle.