ROCK & ROYALTY ™ is a rocker chic clothing & accessory boutique inspired by the mixture of modern world rock & roll and medieval European royalty. Bold and edgy elements such as chunky chain or stark graphics entwine with ribbon, lace, pearls, and heraldic symbols. This rocker romantic style combines the traditional hard edge style with beautiful embellishments inspired by royalty fashion from the likes of Marie Antoinette. This brand encompasses a wide range of fashion styles from rocker and rockabilly to goth or punk to the feminine romantic.

The brand is distinguished by two main collections. The ROYALTY Collection is the core of the brand featuring special touches that set it a part from most retail brands yet still competitive with their prices considering this is a handmade boutique line of merchandise. The COUTURE Collection requires even more attention detail to the design and construction and are often limited edition pieces. Within these collections there may be sub collections to unify the designs such as House of Kensington, Queen Alexandria, Royal Highness, House of Harper and more.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Columbus, Ohio based designer, Annie Weihrauch, founded Modern Material in 2007 and created the brand name, Rock & Royalty, in 2009. She graduated with Honors from Columbus College of Art & Design in 2003 with a degree in Advertising and Graphic Design. She was then recruited by Bath & Body Works to join their design team with a focus on packaging, branding and accessory design. After four years she moved on to spend a year in a marketing design role and later found herself back in retail design on the manufacturing side. She has spent the past 3 years as an accessories designer at Atrium supporting dozens of retail brands which can be found in any shopping mall around the US. Working on mass market brands is very different from a small boutique brand, however the experiences blend together. This gives her the reality of what it takes for the ‘big guys’ to produce large quantities in China and where it sets design limitations that a boutique brand does not have.

Somewhere in the middle of her professional career, Annie wanted to try her hand at creating a line to focus on her own vision. Originally Modern Material started out as line of modern graphic note cards and soon after expanded into graphic tees and jewelry. After 2 years it became clear what the brand identity had become and Rock & Royalty was crowned. Modern Material still remains the LLC and may be visible from the business perspective and less visible as a part of the brand name.

Annie’s husband, Steve Weihrauch, is also an integral part of the business with key roles in web development and business operations. Without his left brained side to the business, things might not be running so smoothly. His dedication and knowledge allows Annie to focus strictly on creative development.

After the web store launched in January 2008 word spread around the world through social networks, blogs, indie fashion forums, concerts, events, giveaways, charities and even a celebrity gift basket for Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale. We previously partnered with 30 indie musicians to giveaway music with purchase. These up and coming artists ranged from small town groups to bands whose music was featured on hit TV shows. Boutiques are often interested in carrying the line in their stores, however selling at wholesale prices is a challenge. Local festivals have been a great source of marketing and selling product while proving that this brand is exactly what the hip and trendy customer is looking for. Gahana’s Creekside Blues and Jazz Festival and ComFest have been amazing experiences for Rock & Royalty. We love seeing the excitement generated in our booth by the thousands of people that visit it. Word seems to spread around to their friends sending them down to check us out. We love meeting each customer or visitor and getting their feedback, which is usually that they wished we had a brick and mortar store to shop in. We are working hard to open more doors and continue building the brand and pushing it forward.

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LONG LIVE ROCK. Inspired by Rock & Royalty Romance.