<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  One of the first things you notice when you spend time around the Olsens is their astounding collection of jewelry: Almost every finger is adorned with some sort of exotic quartz or glittery snake, their outfits are finished with a long chain or a pearl drop earring, and both wrists hold gorgeous, gold cuffs. I had the pleasure of working for Ashley and Mary-Kate at The Row for just under a year, and within weeks, found myself drawn to their elaborate collection of gems. And if asked &amp;quot;Where is that from?&amp;quot; the answer was usually one of two things: &amp;quot;vintage,&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s Brooke&amp;#039;s. It&amp;#039;s Sidney Garber.&amp;quot; Related: When to Invest in Your First Piece of Jewelry I had never heard of Sidney Garber, but I vaguely knew who the aforementioned &amp;quot;Brooke&amp;quot; was they casually referred to. She is a frequent The Row customer and avid fixture in the art scene. Her son, around my age, is the owner of Acme, a restaurant my friends and I visit often, and I knew her family was philanthropic from pages of various magazines and newspapers. The fact that I, a self-proclaimed jewelry addict, didn&amp;#039;t know that she made jewelry seemed a bit criminal. I did some digging, soon realizing that the reason I hadn&amp;#039;t heard of Brooke was, most likely, two-fold. Related: 365 Days in the Life of a Chanel J12 Watch  Photo: Courtesy of Sidney Garber One: I couldn&amp;#039;t afford it. Two: It wasn&amp;#039;t so easy to find. With her only free-standing store in Chicago (her hometown), and a few pieces at Barneys New York, she seemed to define exclusivity. I had the pleasure of meeting with Brooke Neidich last week, where we talked about the impending opening of her New York store (coming September) and growing up in the jewelry business. Neidich comes by jewelry genetically. Her father, Sidney Garber, opened the Chicago store in 1946 and she has memories\u2014that go back as early as her infancy\u2014of being in the shop. &amp;quot;The charms were in the safe, and I was allowed to sit in front of it with a tray. They all moved around. I sat on the floor and played with them while he worked,&amp;quot; she told me. She can remember the women who walked into her father&amp;#039;s store vividly, like characters out of a movie: one, who she tells me wore a proper Merry Widow, pearls, and ladylike purses, and another who wore Bill Blass and chunky necklaces. These are women she found herself looking toward\u2014the women she still references. &amp;quot;My dad was a very tough taskmaster,&amp;quot; Neidich said thoughtfully looking back on her days at the store, &amp;quot;and I couldn&amp;#039;t wait to get out of there.&amp;quot; She moved to New York, married her husband Daniel Neidich, and had her children, returning home to Chicago periodically. &amp;quot;I went back to the store one Christmas and realized there was nothing I wanted. I realized he had just gotten older. So I said to him, &amp;#039;Let&amp;#039;s go to Europe.&amp;#039; I kind of kept my hand in,&amp;quot;she said. Their father-daughter trip to Europe was no fantasy. Neidich pushed trendy, colored gray diamonds on her father who quipped that he &amp;quot;wouldn&amp;#039;t bend down to pick them off of the floor.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;But if he had been younger,&amp;quot; she began to explain, &amp;quot;he would have totally gotten it. In the end, I think he appreciated that the business might, might continue. That I maybe might not run it into the ground.&amp;quot; Run it into the ground? Far from it. Shop Sidney Garber at Barneys.com  &amp;quot;It was because of Ashley and Mary-Kate wearing my jewelry to a Barneys event,&amp;quot; Neidich says of her success. &amp;quot;They sent me a photo from the car of the bracelets and I thought it was so sweet. And they&amp;#039;re putting [The Row] handbags out and Charlotte Blechman (Barneys EVP of marketing and communications) who loves jewelry, said to Dennis Freedman (creative director of Barneys), who&amp;#039;s an old friend of mine, &amp;#039;Whose jewelry is that?&amp;quot; &amp;quot; I think that&amp;#039;s Brooke&amp;#039;s, because, they know her son!&amp;#039; Dennis told her. So I get an e-mail from Dennis asking if I would ever consider wholesaling. I didn&amp;#039;t know how to wholesale. I called Mickey Drexler (CEO of J.Crew) and he said, &amp;#039;Just figure it out.&amp;#039; There&amp;#039;s no just figuring it out!&amp;quot; So she thought on her toes and made it up. And Barneys, who was &amp;quot;incredibly kind and understanding,&amp;quot; took to Neidich&amp;#039;s cuffs like bees to honey. &amp;quot;They loved them because they said they were &amp;#039;so C\u00E9line,&amp;#039; and I told them, &amp;#039;They are so way before C\u00E9line,&amp;quot; she said. That was 2011. This September, Neidich will be opening up her second store, this time in New York. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m so excited to be able to actually be there and have the jewelry, rather than doing a three-day trunk show and then have the pieces be gone,&amp;quot; she said when I asked her what she&amp;#039;s most excited about. &amp;quot;People are always saying, &amp;#039;You know that really cool thing you showed me that I loved?&amp;#039; And then I have to try to remember that really cool thing they loved!&amp;quot;  Photo: Courtesy of Sidney Garber Neidich is dressing up her New York store like a living room, with sofas, chairs, books, art, and traditional showcases for the jewelry somehow worked into the mix. While there won&amp;#039;t be any exclusives per se, the jeweler will only be selling her one-of-a-kind pieces in the New York and Chicago locations. Though the doors won&amp;#039;t open until fall, the designer felt a need to celebrate the space immediately: &amp;quot;I thought, I have the front of the store,&amp;quot; Neidich told me excitedly as she showed me sketches of the storefront. &amp;quot;When Barneys opened on Madison Avenue there was a Jean-Phillippe Delhomme ad....He has this whole uptown-downtown vibe. I wanted a Chapin girl, a dog, the cuffs, and feathers, and The Row blazer with the swallows, and there was a man in it. We really needed a man. And this will fill the window.&amp;quot;  Photo: Courtesy of Sidney Garber There&amp;#039;s a childlike sense of excitement in Neidich when she talked about the opening, leading me to wonder what Mr. Garber, who died in 2008, would think of everything she&amp;#039;s accomplished. &amp;quot;I think actually he would be telling me not to open a store in New York\u2014that I have no idea what I&amp;#039;m doing,&amp;quot; she said with a laugh. &amp;quot;You know, I think he would be excited. He took huge risks.&amp;quot; What sets Neidich&amp;#039;s pieces for Sidney Garber apart is similar to what the fashion industry has come to know and love about The Row, and perhaps why Ashley and Mary-Kate are such big supporters of the Garber brand: When you look at her pieces, you have a sense that you&amp;#039;ve discovered something, like you&amp;#039;ve entered into a jewel box filled with one-of-a-kind gems that no one else has yet seen. I offered up this theory to Neidich. &amp;quot;I have a feeling that&amp;#039;s why I&amp;#039;m not ever going to be really big,&amp;quot; she said with a laugh. We have a feeling that&amp;#039;s not the case. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/accessories/tips/a12736/jeweler-brooke-garber-neidich-profile/>