G I L D E D – M A N E was founded in 2015 by designer Ashley Rabin, with the purpose of creating high quality statement pieces, that are also friendly to the environment. With over ten years of experience as a women’s apparel designer in NYC, Rabin wanted to create pieces that reflected her values, as well as her aesthetic. Her main sources of inspiration are the materials themselves : vintage jewelry, semi-precious stones, metallic zardozi embroidery & reclaimed leather. She decided to use genuine leather as the foundation of her SHIELD pieces because it is both durable and biodegradable, unlike petroleum based alternatives. Rabin sources the leather from LL Designs & Fab Scrap, utilizing pre-consumer discards that would have otherwise ended up as landfill. With regular use, the leather based jewelry will become a second skin. You may even feel naked without it!
To learn more about Gilded-Mane, read “Becoming Gilded Mane”