Anita Loos may be gone, but diamonds are still a girl’s best friend
By Christy Marshall
One night at Trattoria Marcella, Debbie Kaminer was approached by a stranger. He explained that his wife was lusting after Kaminer’s earrings. Where did she get them? Kaminer explained that she sold them herself, through her company, What a Girl Wants. He left, ran to the nearest ATM and returned with $900 to buy the diamonds right off Kaminer’s ears.
It wasn’t the first time, or the last, she’s sold her wares off her neck, wrist or ears.
Kaminer believes in brilliance. Diamonds that sparkle and dazzle, drip, even drizzle. She’s not the only believer. In her first year of business, What a Girl Wants’ sales totaled $500,000; this year, with new franchisees in Atlanta, Boston and Louisville, Kaminer predicts sales could be substantially better.
It all started around her 40th birthday, when a friend from New York sent her a pair of diamond earrings. “I flipped out,” Kaminer says. “I thought she had given me Cathy Waterman earrings.” She hadn’t. She had given her Waterman look-alikes loaded with real diamonds. The friend’s sister-in-law had sources who could deliver the look without the stratospheric price tag. (Real Watermans run $2,500-plus at Ylang-Ylang; Kaminer’s version cost $440).
Kaminer sug-gested that her friend send her a sampling of pieces. She sold the whole box. Then she started figuring out how to work her new business into her already booked schedule as the mother of two sons; the wife of public-relations maven Craig Kaminer; the president of Educational Insiders (which does diagnostic testing for children) and a part-time fitness instructor.
Kaminer’s first bling bash was 10 days before Valentine’s Day 2004. She held an open house at her Central West End home from noon until 6 p.m. By 4, she had sold all 40 items and was taking orders. Since then, she has continued to host parties in her home, in other cities where friends of hers live, and at trunk shows at Annex Two, Byrd, Essential Elements, Laurie Solet, Jule, Mister Guy and even Wellbridge (where she teaches a spinning class).
“People love a deal,” Kaminer says. “My jewelry is a fraction of the cost of what you’d pay in a retail store. My jewelry is directly from the designer to you.” One especially fine pair of diamond hoops cost $1,300; she estimates the going retail price at $3,000.
“I have the biggest jewelry box in the city,” Kaminer says. Before she goes out on the town, she heads to her jewelry room on the third floor and outfits herself in diamonds—and sometimes returns home without all the jewels.
