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VICTORIA MAGAZINE
Crowning Jewels
for Brides
Debra Moreland’s airy opulent headpieces transformed
bridal style. Now she is creating bejeweled fantasies to top
the wedding cake.
It happened in an instant. Debra Moreland
picked up a book about Faberge’ eggs, the jeweled treasures
of czarist Russia. Her eye fell on a picture of the legendary
“Lily” egg and she gasped. I was fascinated, she
recalls. “And I realized – I can reinvent what I
do!” That was almost fifteen years ago, when Debra was
a young mother making bridal headpieces of fabric and selling
them from her Cincinnati home. Although she had studied sculpture,
she never really thought of her work as art. But at that moment
she knew it could be. With no background in the techniques
of jewelry making, she began designing bridal tiaras of exquisite
fantasy, incorporating crystals, pearls and enameled flowers.”
of course I then had to learn how to actually make them!”
she says.
As bridal fashions turned to simple elegant
dresses, Debra’s tiaras were the perfect compliment-ideal
for sophisticated gowns. From her tiny shop, called Paris,
and an ever growing workshop of artisans, she transformed
not only brides, but also bridal styles. Today the beautifully
crafted Paris headpieces, as well as such wedding-day accessories
purses, chokers and barefoot sandals, are sold in scores of
top bridal shops. And Debra (who designs every product herself
and admits she barely sleeps when she’s brainstorming)
keeps coming up with innovative ideas.
Who else, for example, would think of crowning
a wedding cake with intricate jewelry instead of flowers or
plastic couples? “To be honest, one of my brides did;
she wanted a cake tiara to match her own. And the idea just
grew on me,” says Debra, who this spring launched a full
“cake jewelry” line. Bakers may now match their
decoration to the flowers of the crown-which will never wilt.
“And families an se them for anniversaries or even birthdays
again and again.”
Victoria Magazine
June 2003
Text by Linda Vaccariello
Photographed by Tara Sgoi
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