Meet the Maker Behind Bunny Street

A fashion designer who got distracted by aprons

I'm Iryna, a fashion designer who started this business in Ukraine and moved it, production and all, to Birmingham in 2014. Over a decade later we are still designing and making personalised aprons, embroidered robes and gifts. I think of them as creative uniforms. A child's apron with their name on it is permission to end up covered in flour from head to toe while their favourite grown-up is being just as silly beside them, and it becomes the thing they find in a drawer twenty years later and can't possibly throw away. A robe on a wedding morning does the same job at the other end of life: you wear it while the anticipation builds, and you keep it long after the day.

Which is why they make good presents. You're not really giving someone an apron, you're giving them the afternoon they'll remember in it.

Where it all comes from

Everything I design comes from four obsessions: colour, texture, dinner parties and dressing up. I have never seen the point of saving the good linen for best, because best is usually a Tuesday with friends round and something in the oven that may or may not work. So our aprons are cut like clothes rather than kitchen equipment. The fabric has to feel right in the hand, the shape has to be practical and flattering, and the embroidered name goes on last, the finishing touch that turns an apron into a keepsake.

Three brands and a few detours

Bunny Street came first, for the people who host, create, bake, celebrate and need something to wear while they do it. The Prancing Hare followed with linen clothing for the rest of the day (including the wedding day - we make linen bridal wear too), when the apron comes off and the guests arrive.

Married in the Morning took our bridal robes and my love of colour and dressing up somewhere else entirely: it's where rainbow meets bridal wear, and it's my favourite, most ridiculous love child.

The people who wear Bunny Street

Thousands of gift messages and more than 1,800 reviews later, with an average of 4.9 stars, what I like most isn't the numbers. It's the little rituals people build around what we make: toddlers in aprons they'll grow into by Christmas, grandads (who shouldn't feel left out), grandmothers and grandchildren in matching aprons, and bridesmaids in a row of robes pretending not to cry. Our aprons have been in play kitchens and professional kitchens, and in pretend ones on screen too, on CBeebies, in a Nestlé condensed milk advert, in a Christmas TV advert in Ukraine, and occasionally on a theatre stage.

Come and say hello

If you have a question about sizing, personalisation or which name goes on which apron, email sales@bunnystreet.com. Everything is designed and made in Birmingham, and every message is read by someone who cares a great deal about getting the spelling right.

Iryna
Founder, Bunny Street