Riding the wave of my newfound love for earrings, I stumbled across another creator whose designs grabbed my heart right away. I had always thought of pastel colours as soft and pretty, and seeing those colours come to life through earrings made of pastel dinosaurs, pastel mini high heels, and even pastel ramen packets was incredibly amazing.
I introduce to you Pastel Dream Collective (PDC) – an online store not only fit for those who love pastel, but also for those who are looking for style and pizzazz alongside their colours!
The Beginning Of A Dream
While perusing through PDC’s Instagram page, I first read her bio: “lil grocery/toy concept store” – a grocery/toy concept sums up what makes PDC so special.
I had a chance to interview the lovely owner of the store, Rosie. I asked how her love for all things pastel manifested, and why it led her to create PDC.
“My pastel obsession actually began when I was a kid! I have always loved My Little Pony –and I actually have my very own personal collection of it. I used to wear the clips that came with the ponies in my own hair.”
“I started making my own accessories to match the colour of my psychedelic hair and I started getting quite a bit of attention from it. People would also tend to ask where I get my stuff from and that kinda sparked the idea for me to start Pastel Dream Collective!”
It turns out that her grocery/toy store concept sparks from something that’s close to her heart.
“Besides my obsession with My Little Pony, I really like grocery stores! I could spend hours going through aisle by aisle admiring all of the items on the shelves, and that’s the exact same experience I want for my customers.
I want them to not only admire my earrings but also the way I display it. For my pop-ups, I would decorate my booth with miniature supermarket baskets filled with toy plastic fruits and food, shopping carts and I even have a toy cash register. I want my customers to feel like my brand is somewhat nostalgic and makes them feel like a kid again too!”
Seeing her booth in real life, I can also attest to her super-cute and supermarket-themed design. I remember seeing the toy cash register and just thinking of how adorable it was.
Dream-Like Accessories
One thing Rosie’s known for is her whimsical and psychedelic accessory designs. In addition to the previous ones I mentioned, she also creates earrings using mini Legos, little cute bears, and even ones with anime characters!
However, my personal favourite is her Penang-Galz earrings: two doll heads detached from their bodies. While some of you may think that they’re creepy, I don’t. In fact, I love them – very much so.
I actually asked Rosie how she came up with the idea for Penang-Galz, and where she got the unorthodox name from:
“I have always wanted to make doll earrings but I didn’t know how I was gonna go about it until one of my friends gave me a suggestion to make doll head earrings. I was so down for the idea and that’s basically how things go when it comes to my thought process – I’ll try my best to make an idea into a reality. The name for it just came to me when I was making the piece, my mum got shocked and shouted “Penanggal” which is just a ghost without a body and I decided to switch it up and call it “Penang-Galz” instead.”
She went on to tell me what inspired her to create.
“Most of the time, my inspirations just come from toys and cartoons, from My Little Pony to Carebears to Anime. Most of my colour pallets are inspired by cartoons or vintage toys from the past.”
From Dream To Reality – And Beyond
I admire Rosie’s creativity, resilience, and passion. Owning a business is never easy, and the drive to create something that’s coming from a part of you is admirable. You can clearly tell that all her designs stem from her love of pastel, supermarkets, and so on.
As our interview comes to a close, she tells me this:
“Always stay true to your brand and don’t follow trends because in the long run you’ll get tired of it – it’s a temporary drive. Create with passion! Personally I would always make sure that the pieces that I create is something I would wear too and that way my “Pastel Faeries” would feel the sincerity in each individual of the pieces that I put out. Pastel Dream Collective is basically a reflection of myself, a psychedelic fairy with a pastel heart.”
To find out more about Rosie and her products, click here.