Meet Shae Stein | Designer & Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shae Stein and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shae, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
Creating makes me happy, it really does. Being able to exercise your artistic skill for thousands of people to enjoy is indescribable. Then being able to see how people express themselves through something I make by integrating it into their daily lives is next level. Sometimes, I don’t even think it’s real, but I always have to remind myself that the amount of passion I put behind every piece does deserve the reaction it gets and I think that’s why people are so happy to be a part of the RARE-ROMANCE community, and that makes me happy. When they trust and love the vision enough to promote the brand purely out of appreciation for our attention to detail, rather than of simply portraying material goods that look interesting. That’s when I knew I was doing it right.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets us apart from other brands is that each piece takes great inspiration from historical art. We never create collections because they’re following a trending style or we thought they would do well in a current market. Each design goes through an extremely long process of me going to museums, combing through historical art books, and studying architecture from past decades. When iconography is involved, like our hearts or lightning bolts, I elevate it by making it more than it once was. It’s inspired by past beauty but mixed our current taste and my knack for elemental design. Once the inspiration process is over, I hand sketch every single detail in multiple orientations and send it off to our amazing team who brings my designs to life.

I have to admit, there’s nothing professional about it. My wife and I didn’t have anyone to back us financially, so we just dug into what we knew and fucked with. This factor alone has really taught us how to grow a brand slowly, but very efficiently, because we had nothing to fall back on. I handle all the creatives and branding, while my wife handles all the business since she’s the beauty with the brains. We found out pretty quickly how perfect of a match we were. Art, passion, and brains.
You find out that creating a brand is not about having money. It’s about creating a community that is excited to grow with you and having great attention to detail in all that you do. Money doesn’t promise a successful brand. If it has no passion, it’s not going to succeed. Yes, money can fix problems, but it’s really the hard work of the team and the community’s work to carry you. You just need to start and keep pushing. It’s never easy.

I want people to know that you do not need money to start a project as long as you are passionate about it and willing to get your hands dirty. We had to take the long route many times because we couldn’t afford a quick solution. It’s not easy. There are sleepless nights and days filled with frustration, but that’s all soothed with patience. Even so, patience is one of the hardest things I deal with.
As the brand grows, you have to learn how to have more and more patience. More money does mean more problems. More success means more issues. You’re always going to be learning and trying to overcome an obstacle. The pressure gets harder, but you get stronger. It’s hard to maintain sanity and success if you don’t practice patience. Focus on one task at a time and thoroughly put effort into each task. Once the time comes, you must hire the right people to do the right tasks with the same amount of passion as you do. It is imperative that you get a team of people that are better than you at the things you are struggling with. I always like to recall the saying, “Always be working on your business, not in your business”, which has translated to me as not spending too much time on things you’re not good at. You must find a solution or you’ll work yourself out of wanting to continue. Invest in the purpose of your business, not just the everyday tasks that hinder you from working on the bigger picture.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We love to support small businesses, especially since we’re a small business so we know how hard everyone behind the counter is working. Melrose is one of our favorite places to explore because it’s so close to where we live and there are so many up-and-coming brands there to support and inspire you. The Melrose Flea Market is a perfect example of that. Sure, they could be under a tent with a foldout table today, but tomorrow, they can be everyone’s favorite brand. It’s super exciting to witness all these young, talented creatives. As I said earlier, I love going to museums and Los Angeles really seems to have an endless roster of them for each person’s interest. There’s always something for everyone’s niche here. Some may be harder to find than others, but you just have to go out and search for them.
If any of our friends were visiting, we would definitely take them to the RARE-ROMANCE HQ to show them the behind-the-scenes of the madness.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I always have to give thanks to the music industry. We really couldn’t have gotten here without our community, which happens to include some of our favorite musicians. We don’t even realize their love for the brand until they’ve bought our stuff and decided to shout us out to show their love. So many musicians have expressed themselves with different pieces, while at the same time, we’ve always been inspired by all types of musicians and their music to make our designs in the first place. Without them, I don’t know if we would have as strong of a community as we do today; a community we deeply care about. We are really looking forward to collaborating with End Overdose this year. We will be releasing a necklace where 100% of the proceeds will be going to their foundation. Companies need to start giving a f*** about their community. We’re excited to hopefully inspire other companies to do so.

Website: https://rare-romance.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rareromance/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rare-romance/about/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rareromance?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rarermnce/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rareromance