Prestige Promenade pearls and sweets
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1508941
26 | thejewelrybook.com How award-winning designer Benjamin Javahari built one of the most highly regarded jewelry design businesses in the industry. e Uneek Family e fi rst employee hired by Benjamin 27 years ago is still with them today. at says a lot about the family atmosphere he and his wife Natalie have cultivated at Uneek. "We're all family – chosen family," he likes to say. Natalie adds, "It's been kind of magical to see it grow to the 50+ employees we have now." e back story Benjamin and Natalie started dating 24 years ago. At that time, she would help him with trunk shows, and "a little bit of everything." But then the couple split up and didn't see each other for eight years. ey got back together when "we realized that the love we shared could be found with no one else," Benjamin says. After getting married in October 2013, Natalie stepped in to become Uneek's marketing director and staff photographer. When the couple started their family, Natalie became a stay-at-home mom to their two children. (She's an amazing mother, says her proud husband). But she always kept up to date with the business and remained a confi dant and advisor. Now she's back in the studio overseeing all product photography and shooting the models herself, as well as managing the marketing. e Uneek Mystique Uneek is known for fi ne pieces of wearable art with diamonds, white and colored, Benjamin's stone of choice. Why? "Because they are rare … I like rare things," he says. eir secret is in combining old world metalsmithing with modern tecÚ ology to create the necklace, ring or pendant that will be passed on for generations to come. Even as a toddler, Benjamin had a fascination with ne jewelry. He would assist in his mother's retail jewelry store and was completely taken by the concept of a piece of jewelry becoming an heirloom. And his passion never agged. When he was just 21 years old, Benjamin was a sales rep for a diamond company. But, "I didn't like their ethics, or the way they stood behind the product," he says. "So I decided to strike out on my own." He began by subcontracting but soon realized that he couldn't maintain his high standards of quality that way. So with one jeweler and one setter on his team, he set up shop. What's unique about Uneek jewelry? I T ' S a f a M I l Y a f f a I R by Lanny Udell Fall 2023 | Editorial