[dropcap cap=A]s we were dressing for a black-tie charity event one evening, we couldn’t find my husband’s bow tie. Crisis! Feeling creative, and struggling with his collar (and bad temper), I managed to substitute one of our pins — matte onyx and gold — instead. He grumbled, but finally wore it, and even enjoyed it. (“Told you so!”)[/dropcap]
Then I decided to perform a public service for America and start a trend to liberate all the beleaguered males from the horrors of the bow tie: I moved a number of our more geometric, understated, slow-moving ladies’ pins to the men’s case. They looked good there.
Sure enough, when the wife of one of our clients, a theater director, came in to buy him an anniversary gift, what do you think I immediately suggested? Yes, and she did buy him a nice fan-shaped onyx pin.
What I didn’t know at the time was that he had just won a Tony award, and soon enough, I had the pleasure of cutting out from my newspaper the picture of award-winning director Robert Hall’s nomination. Fastened to the collar of his dress shirt was a fan-shaped pin — my pin! I started a trend!
[h4]Eve J. Alfillé[/h4]
Eve J. Alfillé Gallery and Studio, Evanston, IL

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[span class=note]This story is from the December 2010 edition of INSTORE[/span]
Retiring? Let Wilkerson Do the Heavy Lifting
Retirement can be a great part of life. As Nanji Singadia puts it, “I want to retire and enjoy my life. I’m 78 now and I just want to take a break.” That said, Nanji decided that the best way to move ahead was to contact the experts at Wilkerson. He chose them because he knew that closing a store is a heavy lift.
To maximize sales and move on to the next, best chapter of his life, he called Wilkerson—but not before asking his industry friends for their opinion. He found that Wilkerson was the company most recommended and says their professionalism, experience and the homework they did before the launch all helped to make his going out of business sale a success. “Wilkerson were working on the sale a month it took place,” he says. “They did a great job.”