Goodbye Dorfman Jewelers

If you visit Boston and take the Duck Tour, one of the stops is Newbury Street. The driver takes a moment to tell about the high-end shops and important people who shop on this street. When the Duck boats roll up to Newbury Street after February 20^th, Newbury Street will feel a little less glamorous. Dorfman Jewelers is closing today.

I came to Boston almost seven years ago to attend graduate school. I was not in the area too long before I found my way to Newbury Street and Dorfman. I want to focus this post on my experience with the store and the jewelry. Sometimes you can be too close to a subject, which makes it hard to express exactly the meaning your subject has on you. Events at Dorfman were not simple viewings; you were celebrating a new brand coming into the Dorfman family. Those in attendance were in some cases clients but were all friends and welcomed guests. I wrote about several events held at Dorfman’s in some of my past blog posts. I will mention the links if you would like to know more.

Events I attended were:

The reopening of Dorfman’s in the Fall of 2014. I entered the new store and all the designers or brand representatives were there to answer questions about their jewels and brand. The designers included Alexandra Mor, Mimi So, Agori, Gemlock and many others. Some of their pictures are below. This was also the first Alexandra Mor Boutique that opened.

April 2015, Fred Leighton had an event at Dorfman showing off jewelry worn by the stars. That article is here that I wrote on the event.

In the Fall of 2015, they hosted the newly made imperial egg created by the reestablished Faberge Company. The night was filled with beautiful music provided by a professional singer, a representative of Faberge to talk about the pieces in more depth and the jewelry that was available to purchase.

Other events included the new Atomo mini collection that Giorgio Bulgari came to show; Graff Diamonds shown in Dorfman’s, Pinks diamonds from the Angolo Mines of Austrailia (I remember the $1.2 million bracelet I tried on) and meeting Alexandra Mor. Gerard Riveron the former Creative Director at Dorfman’s first introduced Alexandra’s collection in 2012. I was fortunate enough to try on some of her beautiful and well-crafted pieces. It is one of the many qualities that Dorfman had that made it different from the rest. All the pieces were high quality, beautiful and wearable.

 

Good byes are hard to handle but they are even harder when you feel as though you do not have something to carry with you after it ends. That is why I hoped to leave with a piece from this amazing store and instead left with a story that involves fate. A quote I like is from Napoleon Bonaparte, ‘There is no such thing as accident; it is just fate misnamed.’ I got the news of Dorfman closing when I was home in the Midwest for Christmas. I got to the store after the New Year to find many of the pieces in my price range already sold (not that there were many options with my budget). I did see a light colored pear shaped pendant that I remembered from an event in the spring (Picture below from an event).

It was an A & Furst rose gold pendant with what was said to be a rose quartz. I was really hoping to buy that item but it was only 30% off. I can tell you I left a little down but I still had faith something might come up later. February came and I was planning to go back and say good-bye to the staff. I knew there had been more discounts but with Valentine’s Day, the odds were less in my favor of the pendant still being there. I walk in with a few small gifts and talked a moment to those workers that were there. I looked around the store again and was a little surprised to see the pendant at 50% off still on display. I asked to see the pendant again. The woman that took it out then proceeded to talk about the pendant and a strange occurrence with the piece.

The piece really was not supposed to be here. The story went another customer had looked at this pendant a few weeks ago. She liked it but wanted to think it over; when she returned to buy the pendant, it was gone. The woman telling me the story was the one to tell the woman if it was not out then it must have sold. A few days later same the woman returned looked around, asked about the pendant and left when she was told it was not here it must have sold. Well a little while after that the pendant resurfaced it had not sold but had somehow slipped underneath something that had it hidden. The store took it out and displayed it. The woman never returned but another customer came that was interested but wanted the stone to be amethyst not rose quartz so she declined. Then I came in. I liked it but was not thinking of making a purchase but the necklace was closer to my budget. I did say I would think about it and made sure they were open on President’s Day. I thought about the necklace the next day and decided to buy it Monday if it was there. As I was walking down Newbury Street that Monday morning still thinking of the necklace, I had a moment that felt a little like the scene from ‘When Harry Met Sally’. Harry (Billy Crystal) is alone in the cold thinking about what got him here and suddenly has a moment of clarity where the viewer sees flashbacks of him and Sally (Meg Ryan). The viewer knows what Harry just realizes and puts so eloquently to Sally when he sees her, “when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible”.

I was not buying just a pendant I was buying memories that were something I would keep forever. I got to the store and the pendant was still there. I took one more look and saw more than what was in front of me. I saw six years of happy moments from a store with the best quality and kindest staff I had ever met. I bought the A & Furst pendant and became a client of Dorfman Jewelers. On the train ride back, I took out my receipt to see what the description had. The stone is a Rose de France. I looked it up and saw it is in fact an amethyst but is so light a shade of purple it is not considered as valuable as the deeper hued amethyst people are familiar with. So looking back, I think it was a story of fate. As hard as it is to imagine Newbury Street without Dorfman Jewelers, there is a quote I found comforting. ‘How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard’~A.A.Milne

 

Thank you for the many wonderful experiences Dorfman! For those familiar with the store I would love to hear your stories in the comments. I hope you visit my blog again soon!

 

Below are a few more photos from the pieces in the final store inventory: