RAPAPORT...
Yanina Fleysher began her career at age 14 selling jewelry
in a New Jersey flea market. Soon, she discovered her ability to customize the
jewelry she was selling — adding pieces or combining elements — to create
something totally new. She practiced designing and fabricating jewelry for five
years until 1987 when, at the age of 19, she established a business under her
own name in a jewelry mall in Wayne, New Jersey.
Wishing to create a “destination shop,” in 1993 she moved to
her current location, an elegant street-front store in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.
The 2,500-square-foot showroom is located on the corner of a busy street, with
a workshop, office and parking at the back.
Yanina & Co. is a family business. Yanina is president,
her mother, Claudia Fleysher, is her founding partner and serves as the
company’s controller. Brother Alex, a Gemological Institute of America (GIA)–certified
diamond grader, joined as a partner 13 years ago.
Individual Style
Yanina herself is a bench jeweler with GIA training and she
designs the majority of pieces displayed in the store. “My jewelry has a
particular style,” she says. “My clients recognize it.” She describes her
designs as classic and versatile with an element of playfulness. The emphasis
is on diamonds. In fact, she estimates that 75 percent to 80 percent of her
sales are diamond jewelry.
“One of our specialties is redoing people’s jewelry,” says
Yanina. “They bring in old pieces and we remodel them into something for today.
Sometimes my clients say they have a ‘bad diamond,’ and I say to them ‘there’s
no such thing as a bad diamond.’” Yanina and her staff take the stone and
redesign a setting for it that transforms the diamond into a piece of jewelry
the woman can wear and enjoy.
Sometimes with new clients, Yanina will ask the woman to
bring in all of her jewelry so they can discuss how she can build her jewelry
wardrobe. Factors to consider are the client’s lifestyle, fashion preferences
and events she attends. The designer says she likes to
create versatile pieces that offer several options of wear, such as a basic
diamond necklace with an add-on pendant or earrings with convertible drops.
“We never turn
a client away,” Yanina says. Customers frequently come in with an idea and a
budget and the retailer will produce a piece to suit their needs. By designing
and manufacturing the majority of its own jewelry, her store is able to offer
very competitive prices on diamonds and finished jewelry.
Diamonds Shine
Diamond engagement rings are a substantial part of the
business, and Alex and other sales personnel spend time teaching buyers what
they need to know about purchasing a diamond. Sometimes they send potential
clients out to shop around before returning to make their final purchase.
Generally speaking, this retailer offers a wide range of diamonds, from
million-dollar sparklers to clarity-enhanced stones, if that’s what the customer
wants. Engagement ring center stones generally begin around 3 carats, Yanina
says, and recently she’s noticed a shift from the popular micropavé settings
that have been so strong to more classic solitaires.
For her own designs, Yanina prefers diamonds of H color or
better, with a minimum of SI1 clarity. She estimates her best-selling prices
for diamond jewelry in today’s market are $3,000 to $5,000. The store carries
only a few branded designer collections the owner especially
likes. Purchased pieces include a couple of Italian brands, but on average, 75
percent to 90 percent of the store’s stock is of her own designs.
As a single mother of two teenagers, Yanina says she has
little time to attend industry trade shows; she’s never been to Basel or
Vicenza. However, she does enjoy international travel and gets her inspiration
from that and current fashions.
Yanina & Co. recently underwent a total renovation,
which included installing new walls and flooring and changing the color of the
showcases. Today, the sleek steel-gray cases — finished with Mercedes-Benz auto
paint — are set at intersecting angles and divided by category:
diamond rings, diamond earrings and necklaces, diamond ensembles, pearls,
colored gemstones.
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| Diamond and 18-karat gold bangles by Yanina & Co. |
Incentives
Except for the occasional trunk show, there are few special
in-store events, except two annual sales that offer 35 percent markdowns on
almost all merchandise. Clients are notified by postcard about the sales’
timing and the retailer says it’s not unusual for customers to come in prior to
the sale to scope out pieces they want to buy.
At holiday time, regular clients receive a $250 gift card to
spend as they choose, and for those who refer new clients to the store, there
is a $100 reward. Advertisements in Town&Country and New Jersey Life, as
well as a recently developed website, keep the customer list growing.
Highly active in the local community, the retailer recently
participated in a charity tie-in to benefit the Diabetes Research Institute.
Billed as “Fashion & Beauty Week,” it was a two-day event held at a local
banquet facility that included fashions from well-known designers as well as a
beauty bar sponsored by Lord & Taylor. Yanina & Co. supplied all of the
jewelry, as well as prizes for a silent auction.
Yanina says she recently attended a wedding and was thrilled
to see that a number of guests were wearing her jewelry and all were eager to
show it off. She says she devotes considerable time to working with clients
individually to make sure there is no duplication of jewelry among her
customers. “My brother and I live in the local area and socialize in the
community; I see clients on an almost daily basis.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - November 2011. To subscribe click here.