I love to redesign old jewelry for customers and the mother of all redesign opportunities was literally handed to me in March. My gorgeous mother, BarbaraB, had to take off her engagement ring ahead of a minor medical procedure, only to find that it couldn’t be budged. The ring had to be cut off. BarbaraB…
Musical Interlude: Madonna Part II and the Hole-y Spirit
Back in the day, when Madonna would play a series of New York City dates, I’d get tickets to one show and say, “I want to do it again!” as soon as the house lights went up. I finally figured out it was best to always get tickets to two shows, which is why I…
Musical Interlude: Madonna at Madison Square Garden
If you had told 1980s me that, in the distant future, I’d see Duran Duran once and Madonna twice in a single week, I would have been mind-blowingly happy … but not totally surprised. I always promised myself that when I graduated from high school, I’d move to New York, where I would find like-minded…
Foot Fetish: Thigh-High Chrysler-Building Boots
I’m in love with the Paul Andrew Chrysler-Building boots that I saw in a Bergdorf Goodman catalog. Maybe I can wear them with my Zang Toi gown that depicts the Time Warner Center and the Hearst Tower … … and accessorize with my Taxi and Passenger Maneater ring, which is engraved with the Brooklyn Bridge….
The Week in Review
In case you missed it, here’s what was on the blog this week. Monday: Global manufacturing is more complicated than you might think. Tuesday: Hamilton is a must-see musical. Wednesday: One of my custom engagement rings was in the New York Post. Thursday: Up close and personal with Duran Duran for the first time in…
Recommended Reading/Viewing: Nichols and May
I enjoyed reading Vanity Fair’s oral history of the late director Mike Nichols so much that I couldn’t stop with that article. I had to read about 10 others. Nichols had such a fascinating life. Born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky, he fled Nazi Germany as a child, traveling alone with his younger brother. He arrived in…
Throwback Thursday: Duran Duran, 1980s and Now
I’m having a belated, band-related fashion trauma! Ten days ago, I saw Duran Duran for the first time since 1987. The band was at Terminal 5 in New York to support their new album, Paper Gods, and my designing friend Stacy Lomman and I were there in the second row. That day, I deeply regretted…
Wendy Brandes Jewelry in the New York Post
Thanks to Lindsay Putnam for including me in today’s New York Post story on nontraditional engagement rings! CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY. The story features the custom engagement ring I did for my gorgeous clients Lori and Brian. Lori had requested a ring in the style of my Edburga poison ring, which has a…
What Wendy Wore: Vintage Ungaro to “Hamilton”
MrB and I went to the Broadway production of hot-hot-hot musical Hamilton tonight. Despite the uniformly rave reviews for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop interpretation of Ron Chernow’s 2005 biography of Alexander Hamilton, I was dreading the evening a little. I was originally supposed to see Hamilton on March 26, when it was downtown at the Public…
Recommended Reading: Manufacturing Realities
I’ve been meaning to share this for so long! Back in July, Michael Hobbes wrote an enlightening story called “The Myth of the Ethical Shopper” for the Huffington Post. There’s a cycle here in the U.S. (and other Western countries). We as consumers want inexpensive goods, which means manufacturers need to avoid steep U.S. /local…