Tale End: Trend Setter

Published

13 years ago

November 29, 2010

Tale End: Trend Setter [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

Tale End: Trend Setter

[span class=note]This story is from the December 2010 edition of INSTORE[/span]

When There’s No Succession Plan, Call Wilkerson

Bob Wesley, owner of Robert C. Wesley Jewelers in Scottsdale, Ariz., was a third-generation jeweler. When it was time to enjoy life on the other side of the counter, he weighed his options. His lease was nearing renewal time and with no succession plan, he decided it was time to call Wilkerson. There was plenty of inventory to sell and at first, says Wesley, he thought he might try to manage a sale himself. But he’s glad he didn’t. “There’s no way I could have done this as well as Wilkerson,” he says. Wilkerson took responsibility for the entire event, with every detail — from advertising to accounting — done, dusted and managed by the Wilkerson team. “It’s the complete package,” he says of the Wilkerson method of helping jewelers to easily go on to the next phase of their lives. “There’s no way any retailer can duplicate what they’ve done.”