On March 14th Patty Tobin and I kicked off our first series of trunk shows at Bloomingdale’s! I’m gonna tell you all about it, but first I just want to say one thing to summarize how it went: WOHOOO!!! Patty and I couldn’t have been happier with our first two weeks of shows!
Simply put, the jewelry was a smash hit! The colors pulled people right in, and the prices — as usual for Patty Tobin — were so reasonable people couln’t believe it! It wasn’t just the customers responding to the jewelry either; everyone — from the sales associates on the selling floor to the personal shoppers upstairs to the various makeup artists running back and forth — was loving the collection!
In all honesty, we would have been more than happy with the opportunity to showcase our jewelry at any Bloomingdale’s store, but I have to say, there really was something very special about debuting at the 59th Street flagship store in Manhattan. It may just be my long-time love affair with that particular department store — or maybe it’s because it’s such an amazingly iconic place — but whatever the reason, I have to tell you: Each morning when the loud speakers around the store would sound off at 10AM sharp with a loud siren blast that let everyone know the doors were officially open for business, and Frank Sinatra’s voice came ringing out to “New York, New York,” I felt a truly thrilling sensation.
It wasn’t just the excitement, or the nerves for that matter, but an overwhelming sense of pride that bubbled up inside me, filling me with utter confidence. Pride for my amazing aunt, who has worked so hard to get this far. Pride in her amazing jewelry designs and all the wonderful people who have been such dedicated supporters of Patty Tobin; people who know and love the jewelry, appreciate its value, and who recognize Patty’s incredible talent. Pride that we are still one of the few jewelry companies that actually manufactures our products not just in the U.S., but right here in our home state of New York. And just an overall sense of satisfaction for how hard we’ve worked and how far we’ve come since openning our first Patty Tobin Fine Fashion Jewelry boutique in 2009.
With six days of shows at 59th Street and two in Short Hills, NJ, we got to meet so many wonderful people. Patty and I were both loving the opportunity to interact with so many new customers, fellow designers and entrepreneurs, as well as Bloomingdale’s amazing staff. The energy on the selling floor of such a large retailer as Bloomingdale’s is really quite invigorating. Despite being on our feet for 14 hours a day for the better part of those two weeks, as soon as we stepped on the floor, I could see we were both energized — “rearing and ready to go,” as they say!
Patty really outdid herself with the jewelry for these shows. The pieces she designed for Bloomingdale’s events included several of my all-time favorite Patty Tobin styles, plus a whole bunch of brand new pieces that were so new, in fact, even I didn’t get a chance to see them all until we were setting up on the first day!
The colors were just magnificent! Sparkling blues, rich purples and bright bursts of orange that were literally stopping people in their tracks. We had plenty of pearls, as always, but we had an especially fabulous collection of stunning “gemmy-gem gems,” as Patty would call them.
More exciting news and updates, plus plenty more photos from our first Trunk Shows in New York City and Short Hills are coming soon, so stay tuned for more at PattyTobin.com!