Brooke Garber Neidich, a Mind Your Body Pilates devotee, wears many (many) hats—she’s a co-chairman of the Whitney Museum of Art, vice chairman of Lincoln Center Theater, co-founder of the Child Mind Institute, and somewhere in there, she manages to continue the legacy of her father, Chicago-based jeweler Sidney Garber.
Along with her partner Jennifer Aubrey, who cut her teeth at Tiffany & Co., she is creating heirloom pieces that any modern girl would gladly nab from her mother’s jewelry box. We recently caught up with Garber Neidich post-shopping spree at Barneys New York.
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Barneys New York: When did you begin working in jewelry?
Brooke Garber Neidich: My father had me working at his store at a very young age—he’d started it after the war and grown it into a very chic business. When I was older, I got more involved and managed to convince my best friend Jennifer to do it with me.
BNY: What do you look for when it comes to jewelry?
BGN: I don’t like jewelry to be static. Take our diamond ropes—there’s a movement and lushness to them that I love; they’re almost like a scarf. A lot of research and development goes into our work. Our mesh pieces, for instance, took forever to figure out, but the result is that they feel exactly like fabric. I feel passionately about creating pieces with the highest possible quality; otherwise it’s just not worth it.
BNY: Any favorite pieces?
BGN: I wear everything we make. Our best-selling bracelets—I’ve had mine for twenty-five years. I never leave the house without them.
BNY: Most high-end jewelry is relatively classic, but yours is very modern. Why?
BGN: It’s important to me that our jewelry has a modern sensibility—that it offers elegance that isn’t off-putting. They’re pieces you can wear uptown or downtown. We love that we’re getting a younger group of women interested in our work.
BNY: You donate all your profits to charity. This must be a true labor of love.
BGN: I give away all profits to children’s mental health programs and also to education and the arts. I’m incredibly lucky to be able to do this—for me, it gives the jewelry extra meaning.
- exc. by Jennifer Alfano
