Rihanna TV show uses county-made furniture (From Cotswold Journal)
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Rihanna TV show uses county-made furniture
3:16pm Friday 3rd August 2012 in Business
AS SEEN ON TV: Laura Lane and Mark Bentham of UNICHE.
A START-UP company from Worcestershire trading for only four months has hit publicity gold with its vintage-inspired furniture app-earing on a high profile reality TV series produced by and featuring international superstar Rihanna.
UNICHE, which is based in Suckley, near Malvern, sells a range of furniture and accessories aimed at the interior-savvy individual and was considered to have exactly the right design features to dress the sets of Styled to Rock – a new, hour-long show which aims to find Britain’s new fashion talent.
The series, on Sky Living and due to begin transmission in August, is co-hosted by Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts, designer Henry Holland and stylist Lysa Cooper. Over a ten-week period, unknown designers will be challenged by the presenters to create outfits for a selection of well-known musicians and celebrities.
Simon Hatter, production designer for the new show, said: “Uniche were right for me as the products were truly unique and individual. “I hadn’t seen any other products that had as much original details mixed with amazing customisation. The items fitted perfectly within the rough luxe feel I was going for and when they arrived the items were even better than imagined.”
UNICHE is run by Mark Bentham and partner Laura Lane who said: “We were knocked out when Simon called us. At that point we’d been trading just three weeks. “We knew our products were good, but exposure like this, so early on after launching the business, is fabulous. We spend a long time sourcing and designing our products and selecting pieces we think will work with people’s lifestyles and hopefully we’ve got the model right.”
Mr Bentham, a former property developer, said: “For years we’ve been involved with restoring and bringing neglected homes back to life and the greatest satisfaction came at the end of the project when we looked at dressing the house to make it look great inside, as well as out. “This is an extension of that idea and we wanted to share our ideas and vision with others.”
