Gilt Quotes

“My hope for the Gilded Butterfly collection is that a ring or necklace is the first piece of jewelry someone buys for themselves and never takes off. I hope people come back to Gilded Butterfly throughout their lives, for birthdays and graduations, for job successes, and yes, for engagements. My great-grandfather famously said that ‘a diamond says love,’ and I believe true love begins with ourselves.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“His gallery? You mean my gallery.” She rolled her eyes and gave a wink to Clifford. “Though I’m done with that money pit. Another failed venture courtesy of my son. Are you an artist?” Susan Harrison asked.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“I’ve seen you at work this summer. I’ve seen how people respond to your designs. You’d be an asset to Pavlin & Co. It’s as simple as that. I would offer”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“And it’s a shame, because as we get older, we need to learn how to let go of the past in order to live fully in the present”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“In a town filled with painters and writers and sculptors and photographers, nature was the most prolific and surprising artist of all.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Let me tell you, the Maybrooks are threatening to talk. Pavlin & Co, instead of being synonymous with glamour and romance, will become a symbol of wrongful death. And think of what this could do to Paulina’s memory.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“She had the motor on instead of using the sails and they were too close to the dock. The Maybrooks’ lawyer made it clear that the toxicology reports don’t work in our favor. The accident was just that—an accident. I know you’re having a hard time making sense of it all, but it had nothing to do with the Electric Rose.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“So now my relationship, the one that was stolen from me, is the dark secret? No wonder she’s confused why I didn’t welcome her with open arms. Well, she should know that I was robbed—by her mother.” “Please, stop. This is ancient history. You’re in a relationship now, right? Can’t you just be happy with that?”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“it was hard to tell with wealthy women who did tons of skin maintenance. Sometimes they overdid it and actually looked older than their age.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Respect? Did he call cutting her off financially for moving away respect? Maybe it was a form of respect. Maybe it was a way of letting her make her own way in the world. She was happy to do so.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Her existence is doing something to me,” Elodie said. “Something you’d understand if you ever took a second to consider my feelings.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“All Alan had accomplished was a publicity stunt that destroyed the relationship between three sisters.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“A diamond might say love, but what did it say when a diamond divided the entire family?”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Pavlin & Co had overcome obstacles like world wars and cultural shifts that made expensive jewelry obsolete. But by the late 2000s, the industry was facing the biggest threat by far: technology.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“That ring is a symbol of how you betrayed me. I hope you think of that every time you look at it. I know I certainly will. And I’ll never forgive you.” Not as long as she lived.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Men would come and go, but Elodie was on her way to becoming one of the most high-profile executives in Manhattan”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“You go through men like tissues, and your sister was serious about this young man. I hope you’re happy with yourself!” he’d scolded.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“But that’s old thinking. I believe the future of jewelry is gifts to ourselves. I want us to mark our own milestones, big and small.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Jewelry companies—especially online companies that could sell close to cost because they didn’t have the expense of a physical space—were starting to cannibalize the market. It was getting more and more difficult to make the case that buying your engagement ring at Pavlin & Co was special.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Every subsequent owner suffered financial ruin or premature death. Then there was the Black Orlov, originally 195 carats, which was set as one of the eyes in a statue of the Hindu god Brahma. It was also stolen from India; a diamond dealer brought it to the U.S. in 1932, before jumping out of the window of a Manhattan skyscraper. The Russian princesses who later acquired the diamond also leapt to their deaths.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“But I thought women were the only ones who had to choose between parenthood and career. At least, that was the prevailing wisdom when I was growing up.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Elodie had never understood people’s complaints about how much work it was to have a dog. She now realized that was because she hadn’t done most of that work.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“It was comforting to find a system that told her that while life could be random and cruel, she could at least have a greater understanding of herself and the people around her and make decisions with some guidance. As long as she understood the moon and the stars, she wasn’t alone. She wasn’t lost.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“You won the NYSD award. You’re at the start of such great things. Just come back here and get to work.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“And yet, she wanted that diamond. It was symbolic; the greatest treasure of Pavlin & Co should go to the daughter who was part of Pavlin & Co. And as her father always reminded them: A diamond says love.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Actually, she couldn’t. Why did people always assume that just because she was a woman of a certain age she was also a mother? The only thing more irritating were the people who called her Mrs. Pavlin.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“And I prefer not to have a major emotional event before noon. But I guess we’re all out of our comfort zone.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“Her younger sister Paulina dropped out of school to run around Los Angeles and Europe, but because she was dating men with titles and was written about in Town & Country and Vogue, she was deemed “good for the Pavlin name.” Celeste’s descent into academic bohemia . . . not so much. As for Elodie, who had worked in the family business since her undergraduate years at Columbia, she now seemed to be pursuing a master’s degree in kissing their father’s ass. After a while, both her parents stopped asking—aside from Thanksgiving and winter break—when she was coming to visit. So Celeste was surprised one afternoon to return to her apartment to find an urgent answering machine message from her father summoning her to New York. She called him at the office, expecting that her usual excuses would work. But Alan was having none of it. “This is non-negotiable. All three of you girls”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“More than being in poor taste, all that anti-glamour, minimalist, grungy heroin-chic was bad for business.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt

“A hundred years after Edith Wharton, and matchmaking was still the preferred sport of the rich.”
― Jamie Brenner, Gilt