Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/121906
Michael De Paulo and Tonya Mezrich are sowing the seeds of an empire as they look to expand beyond womenswear. STYLE SETTER ike & ton S top us if you've heard this one before: An architect and a dentist walk into a design studio…. But wait, this isn't the opening line to a cheesy bar joke. Rather, this is how the womenswear collaboration of Tonya Mezrich and Michael De Paulo was born. The ready-to-wear line, called Mike & Ton after the designers' first names, is the brainchild of an erstwhile architect (De Paulo) and a former dentist (Mezrich). A shared love of couture is what brought them together. After graduating from Northeastern University with a master's degree in architecture, De Paulo decided to follow his true passion: designing on a smaller scale, beautiful dresses in particular, which he'd been doing since he was 5. Mezrich, meanwhile, was on the hunt for knockout gowns to wear to red-carpet premieres (her husband is author Ben Mezrich, whose book Bringing Down the House became the film 21). It wasn't long before Mezrich discovered De Paulo's elegant, tailored pieces, and a friendship soon blossomed. "De Paulo was already thinking about doing a ready-to-wear line for himself, and I was interested in starting one," Mezrich recalls. "So we decided to partner together." 86 PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL BENJAMIN (DE PAULO AND MEZRICH, FABRICS); SETH OLENICK (DRESSES); JASON KEMPIN/GETTY IMAGES (LAPIRA); MEZRICH'S HAIR BY VIOLET FURXHI AT SALON MARIO RUSSO; MAKEUP BY STACEY FRASCA CLASSIC LINES AND SASSY ATTITUDE DISTINGUISH THIS DESIGN TEAM'S CONTEMPORARY WOMENSWEAR. BY JULIET IZON BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 086-087_BC_SS_StyleSetter_LATESPRING_13.indd 86 4/10/13 12:31 PM