Jet and Cognac Collar

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• About Stephanie

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     The designer’s global accumulation of baubles breathes new life into unusual — sometimes sinister — custom creations. From antique earrings from a local antique mall, to precious gemstones gathered in Istanbul, Lake combines pieces from across the centuries for a timeless aesthetic.  --Aimee Blanchette

               

    Stephanie Lake is the fifth person in the world to hold a PhD in decorative arts, design history, and material culture. Oh, and she worked for Sotheby’s and is the caretaker of the Bonnie Cashin archive (she was friends with the late, great, iconic designer). This, of course, perfectly primes her for having her own design collections. Otherworldly in their beauty and detail, they are wholly unlike anything else, combining design elements of Hollywood Regency, mid-century, 70s-era Fleetwood Mac, and glam rock. Lake is a stylemaker in a class of her own.  --Katie Dohman

                                                               

          

                    Each Stephanie Lake piece is an original design and one of a kind,

    incorporating centuries of source materials.

     

     

    STEPHANIE LAKE DESIGN, Est. 2007

     

    The fifth scholar in the world to earn a Ph.D. in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Lake's jewelry is informed by her work as a curator, archivist and auction specialist. Her academic focus on decorative arts from the 18th century to the current day centered on personal adornment and aesthetic choices made by elite and intellectual circles. Her curatorial work included stints in Paris, London, Istanbul, Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles, working with some of the world’s most extraordinary collections and collectors.

    Lake's career began with a Vogue article featuring the Sotheby’s Fashion Department. Soon after filing the clipping under the heading “dream job,” Lake moved to New York and became a research consultant at the storied auction house where she studied couture while earning her Masters Degree at the Bard Graduate Center.

    By 2000, Lake’s work at Sotheby’s as well as research for the millennium exhibition “Women Designers in America, 1900-2000” and a summer of studying 18th-century costume at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum led to a friendship with the "mother" of American sportswear, iconic fashion designer Bonnie Cashin (ca. 1908-2000). Heralded as a classic "New York Story," the New York Times Magazine commissioned a 10-page article from Lake about her days spent with her "big sister."  Next, The Fashion Institute of Technology asked Lake to curate a blockbuster exhibition of Cashin’s work which was followed by partnering with Coach for their first-ever retrospective in Japan, centered on Cashin's pioneering work for Sills & Co, Ballantyne, and Coach in the sixties.  Upon Cashin's death in 2000, Lake inherited the designer's personal effects and entire clothing collection, and now maintains the most comprehensive Bonnie Cashin Archive in the world.  Lake is the author of the definitive Cashin monograph, Bonnie Cashin: Chic is Where You Find It (Rizzoli).  

     

    

                                        Lake in her Bonnie Cashin Archive.

     

    

    Lake at Author events for "Bonnie Cashin: Chic is Where You Find It."

    After beginning her doctoral study in decorative arts, Lake’s curatorial work took her around the globe and also to her hometown of Minneapolis. There Lake reunited with and married her high school crush, Cory Lake.  The couple divided their time between the Twin Cities and Los Angeles, where Lake negotiated a transfer of Cashin's papers to UCLA and worked as curator-in-charge of this collection. In 2013, the Lakes welcomed their daughter, Odette Elizabeth.

     

    

    Lake structured a multi-million dollar network of philanthropic endeavors in Cashin's name in New York and Los Angeles. Collaborations with her husband have included a guitar pop-up shop in the Neiman Marcus flagship store in Dallas and an annual fundraiser, Dress Rehearsal, designed to provide underprivileged youth access to the arts through the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.                               

    Lake permanently relocated to Minneapolis and opened her design studio in 2007.  With an initial focus on interiors, Lake's personal jewelry designs quickly turned into requests for commissions.  By 2008, her bespoke and one of a kind jewelry was the core of her business.  She has received numerous accolades in her field, including being named Best Jewelry Designer in Minnesota by several publications of record and a historic commission from the Minneapolis Institute of Art to design a capsule collection of pieces to complement their acclaimed centennial exhibition "Habsburg Splendor: Masterpieces from Vienna's Imperial Collections."

     

     

     

    Lake’s jewelry is sold online, by appointment, and in the Stephanie Lake jewelry salon, located within the Mona Williams boutique at the Mall of America. 

    For more information, please call 612.802.3605 or email lake@stephanielakedesign.com.