Although I don’t live in San Francisco, my weekend getaways last year inspired me to embrace the urban city culture. A culture focused on individuality, creativity, and love. One is considered cool or hip if they don’t follow the trends of the day. The more unique you are, the better. Honey Cooler Handmade designs are each unique, never remade, and always sewn with love. A perfect home-grown business for the city of San Francisco. HCH is a non-techie, fashion-forward start-up with individuality, creativity, and love.
Stephanie Bodnar, the designer behind Honey Cooler Handmade, beautifully crafts silk jacquard masterpieces using almost-forgotten methods. She passionately uses an old insertion lace technique and creates the shapes by hand. Being a fashion-forward woman, she was inspired by renewing style from one of her favorite eras, the 20s. Women were free, daring, spirited, and beginning their rebellion. They began embracing their bodies, their sexiness, and their power. They drastically cut the length of their dresses, showed a little leg, wore feathers, and boas. They stayed out late, drank whiskey, and began doing as they pleased. Stephanie Bodnar, inspired by the beginning of women’s freedom, designed her garments to exemplify the emotion and keep this traditional alive.
She wanted these to be delicate, yet not too delicate that they aren’t taken seriously, like a flapper dress. For this effect, she added skulls to her collection. This gives her soft silks a little hard edge and allows them to expand their audience to the girls who want to show a little bit of their darker side. Maybe they want to save that for the bedroom (it is lingerie), or maybe they just want to express it under a sweet sweater but either way, it gives us girly girls a way to show off our secret side. We won’t look too Goth or edgy but we won’t appear out of our normal style. Its no wonder that even Dita Von Tesse was impressed with her Honey Cooler Handmade design.
I got the pleasure of modeling her garments one night at a RAW show in San Francisco. It was one of my most memorable nights in the city. Not only did I meet amazing women, but I got to wear comfortable, conservative, yet extremely sexy lingerie. Being a more reserved girl myself, I would not normally model for lingerie. However, he garments are extremely sexy without showing too much skin. I felt so womanly and grown up but youthful and playful at the same time. I wore a pink tank and tap shorts with a bow on it. The pink silk and crème lace felt amazing on me and I loved wearing it. I never wanted to change out of it. I can understand why Stephanie wore the first tank she ever made all the time!
Honey Cooler Handmade lingerie are playful yet not overly risqué. They are perfect for city girls who want to have a versatile garment that can be worn in the bedroom but also with a cute pair of jeans. The outfits are hand made and can even be custom made, and are always made with love. Using an old technique that is not practiced often anymore, she crafts extraordinary unique pieces perfect for every girl. Marilyn Monroe said, “Your clothes should be tight enough to show you’re a woman, but loose enough to show you’re a lady.” This is exactly the way I feel about Honey Cooler Handmade designs.