As I went shopping for mothers day cards for my mother, daughter and two daughter-in- laws I came upon a gem that I think says it all: In the  beginning God created the world and populated it with children. After a time he looked around and said "Heavens! This place looks like a zoo! "So he created pets and after some time he looked down and said "What an ungodly mess! You kids need a shepherd!" So he created dads. And after a time he looked down agin and was ASTONISHED!! To see that everything he created was in chaos!  So he created MOMS to look after everything and everyone and after a time he looked down and said, "Now it is perfect!!!!"

Happy Mothers  Day to all these perfect women------ know that Mothers are really special ,loved,appreciated and respected all year round'!!!!!!

To My Mother who is 97 and taught me how to make the most of each day!

- Phyllis Bergman

 

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It seems very appropriate as we near the end of March, Women’s History Month, that I will become the first woman ever, in 125 years to become chairman of the Jewelers Board Trade!

As I sit here at my desk, I take a moment to reflect on some of the wonderful women mentors I have had over the years in the jewelry industry. Helene Fortunoff who built a family and a business at the same time and convinced me to become president of the Women’s Jewelry Association (a post she held while she was doing all the above), Peggy Kirby, the first woman vice-president of Findlay Fine Jewelry, who at 95 is still attending WJA meetings and travelling all over the world, Anna Martin, vice-president of Standard Charter Bank, who succeeded me as president of WJA and who taught me the fine art of networking and introduced me to the global world of jewelry, Marjorie Fortgang who showed me how to build & keep relationships in our industry and of course my mother who taught me to make the most out of everyday! Also collectively, the women of WJA whose varied interests and accomplishments, were an essential component of my growth as a leader. Of course, I have had many special male mentors but as they say in WJA, “Women Rock”.

- Phyllis

With all the love floating around on Valentine's Day, helping young children fulfil their dreams only seemed fitting! We decided to give back to a lovely organization, Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation as they held the 2nd Annual Rush HeArts Luncheon. The evening featured the Amazing Rush Kids and was hosted by none other than the lovely Soledad O'Brien and guests included Golden Globe Winner Idris Elba, Miss Universe Leila Lopes, Super Model Jessica White, and many others. 

Our exquisite Platinum Diamond Heart Pendant was featured in their live auction to help raise funds for the organization, which was founded by Russell Simmons founded back in 1995 (also the DEF Advisory Board Chairman) alongside his brothers, Danny and Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons.

I was more than happy to support of a wonderful event filled with wonderful people!  Check out the picture recap & always remember that love makes life grand! 

-PB  

So my older married children think Valentines Day is a sham! They say "why do you need a special day to say I love you"?, "it just a money making, commercial advertising scheme"! And you know what--both those statements are true! However, Ira and I have been celebrating Valentines Day for over 50 years (never missing one, each year as exciting as the first) True, we don't need a special day to say how we feel about each other,we do that everyday, but it is a day that we celebrate along with every other holiday in the calendar year.  In this electronic age ,where we seem to be busy 24 /7 and we have very little time to spend on any one thing, holidays just give us a wake up call to take some time to make ordinary things in our life more special! To take the everyday and make it special. There's something wonderful about walking around New York ,which I do every day of my life and seeing all the florists busy, seeing store windows beautifully decorated, walking into offices and being greeted by a bowl of chocolate red kisses, restaurants having special menus and giving out roses, and men and women walking in the streets with bouquets!!! Tell me one person who wouldn't feel some sense of excitement in being handed a gift , card 

or experiencing an evening or day that is just a little bit different than every other one. 

And that, my children is what it's all about! That is what life is all about. Going the extra step and making the ordinary EXTRAORDINARY!!  So this Valentines Day I gave Ira a gift on Saturday( just to shake things up a bit) and I have planned a surprise night where we will do everything he loves( and not expensive either). And so you see what makes our relationship still fabulous after all these years!!    PS Sometimes Ira does the planning!

Have a wonderful Valentines Day! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful January! Mine was filled with lots of events and trips. While I have some down time, I wanted to share a few highlights from January. It was such a pleasure to host the inaugural Good Awards for fellow industry influencers. The Diamond Empowerment Fund (www.diamondempowerment.org) brought together an exceptional group of people to demonstrate the importance of doing good in the communities they work in. We honored leaders such as Varda Shine, Edward Hrabak, Rebecca Foerster, and Ivanka Trump, and enjoyed the musical talents of Grammy- Nominated Singtress Melanie Fiona. A fabulous night with fabulous people.

More to come, stay tuned!

-PB

 

The second weekend in January is by far one of my most favorite weekends of the entire year.  While the brisk weather is always a big shock after spending time with the entire family in Florida over the holidays, the slush and ice are barely a factor compared to the pleasure of time spent with old friends and meeting wonderful new people!

The best and the brightest in the industry travel from all over the world to be in New York City for the weekend.  Starting on Friday morning, meetings are held throughout the Waldorf Astoria hotel--”home base” for the weekend--where people have an opportunity to meet face-to-face and talk shop.  In the evening on Friday, everyone looked forward to dressing up to attend the Jewelry Information Center’s annual Gem Awards at Cipriani on 42nd Street, where Jennifer Hudson presented Neil Lane with the design award. This year, Ira and I broke from tradition.  I attended the cocktail reception for the Gem Awards, which was fabulous, but then I left to join Ira to attend a private house party at Roger Gesswein’s house.  His chef cooked the most amazing food while a wonderful pianist played romantic songs.  The fireplace burned bright while past and current leaders of the 24 Karat club were welcomed.  Then we headed back to the Waldorf and up to Todd Wolleman, Michael Toback and Dick Greenwood’s suite for a fabulous pasta buffet cooked by the Waldorf’s chefs.  Great wine and jewelers from all over the country were in attendance.  Loved talking to Woody Justice of Justice Jewelers in Springfield, Missouri.

On Saturday, we attended the annual Jewelers Security Alliance luncheon at the Pierre.  It’s always a very elegant event and yet another great opportunity to see old friends. I love the JSA organization and everything they do to protect jewelers all over the country. Then back to the Waldorf (after a little bit of shopping!), to get ready for the evening.  The hosted suite parties for the 24 Karat Club of the City of New York’s annual banquet begin at 5:30pm.  Ira and I hit as many of them as possible before heading to the VIP cocktail hour, where I got to see my good friend Russell Simmons and his gorgeous girlfriend Heidi, met the new CEO of Kays Jewelers, Mike Barnes (very nice guy) chatted with Sally Morrison of De Beers and then off to the official cocktail party of the event, where Ira and I had a chance to talk to African American Civil Rights Leader Dr. Benjamin Chavis.  During dinner, since I am currently the chairperson of 24 Karat Club, I sat on the dais before joining my table which included my dear friends Huw Daniels and James Courage from Platinum Guild International, along with Varda Shine of DeBeers Trading Co.and Rebecca Forrester of Rio Tinto Mines, talk about a VIP table!  Before the evening’s performance, I headed back to the green room to meet with Gladys Knight and present her with a beautiful champagne diamond pendant! Gladys and I had met earlier in the day and I was delighted when she shouted “You again!” and gave me a big hug when she saw me come into the room.  How fabulous!  After that, Gladys gave a stunning performance for over an hour--the entire crowd LOVED it!  We especially loved the one PIP she brought along, her brother BUBBA! Everyone in the ballroom was so taken with the performance that they stayed in the ballroom just talking (Or were they listening to the last few minutes of the Jets game when they won!). The evening wrapped up with Ira and I spending time with friends and dancing at the 24 Karat-hosted midnight dance party into the wee hours of the morning! Up at 9:30 AM on Sunday morning for another industry meeting with Russell Simmons and members of the Diamond Empowerment Fund to plan an exciting dinner in Hong Kong. In bed at 8:30 PM dreaming of my spectacular weekend!

Reading over this, I realize it sounds rather exhausting!  I can assure you however, that the energy of the industry was more than enough to make up for the short supply of sleep! 

 

  As another Thanksgiving Day approaches, I sit back and ofcourse think of everything that I have to be thankful for. Good health always comes first, then a wonderful husband and a terific family, a host of good friends, fabulous business aqaintences and an indominitable spirit. This has been quite a year filled with lots of anxiety, lots of travel and wonderful adventures and a host of business problems along with many business decisions that had to be made. As I sit here writing my blog I think about what life ie all about and i come to the conclusion that nothing comes easy. Beautiful outcomes, beautiful families, beautiful friends are the result of hard work. I do not know anyone who is successful who has not worked hard to get there but, if you can make the journey along the way interesting and exciting for yourself then when you sit back and think you will only remember the good things. Somehow the bad things are a thing of the past but the good stays with you forever. I love Thanksgiving because of the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes over me when I sit down at the dinner table and look around. My younger son once announced at Thanksgiving that this was the best holiday of all because all religions come together and celebrate a WARM and FUZZY FEELING DAY!

Since we are nearing the end of Breast Cancer awareness month I have chosen to share my story with you.

Several years ago I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Having never been sick a day in my life, I wondered how could this have happened to me. I felt all those feelings everyone talks about about, especially the feeling of failure and loss of control. I had a wonderful doctor who gave me the most beautiful advise. He said,"when a person has a serious illness, he or she feels that they have lost control over many aspects of their lives. Remember you are always in control! If you do not understand what the doctors are doing, ask questions, if you do not like something about a treatment, tell them and if you are too weak for treatments, tell them. And most importantly whichever treatment you finally decide on,you must have absolute faith that the decision you made was the right one for you, not someone else!!! Remember stay in control!!!"

Ira and I discussed my choices and we both agreed to go along with any decision I made and even though we both handle sickness differently, he would respect and understand anything I wanted to do. For six months we were a team committed to getting through this ordeal. The letter C was not going to interupt my life. Ira had a date with me every time I went for a chemo treatment. He would sit and talk to me about anything he could think of to make the time pass quickly. Then we would go out to dinner. I love margaritas and even though I really did not drink during those six months we did share one margarita at dinner. If anyone asked me how many treatment sessions I had left, I would answer with how many margarita dates I would still be going on.

Was it a difficult period for us- OF COURSE! Was it really life as usual-NO WAY! Did we both have to tip-toe around each other-DEFINITLY! Did we make something special out of something heart wrenching? YOU BET WE DID!!!! Those dates were the most memorable ever!!!

Now I only use the letter C for COMMUNICATION, COMPROMISE, COMPLIMENT, CONCERN, COMPASSION, CHILDREN, CASH, CREDIT CARD and ofcourse CHANEL

 

It's always strange to feel sorry for celebrities....they get paid to look good, the whole world is at their beck and call, they are loved and adored by millions, etc. etc. etc.  Lindsay?  She deserves a good kick in the pants (and her parents need a lesson in parenting)!  Brittney?  She had the world in the palm of her hand and she needed to get over herself!  Paris?  Don't even get me started....but when you hear about one of those rare Hollywood couples that seem to actually be the "real deal" it's sad when you hear things aren't working out for them.  In my mind, Courtney Cox and David Arquette have always seemed as authentic as a Hollywood romance can be, so I was saddned to hear this morning that they've announced that they've split.  It seems the separation is as amicable as one can be, they stated "...The reason for this separation is to better understand ourselves and the qualities we need in a partner and for our marriage..."  which makes sense.  A successful relationship absolutely requires a dedication to one's partner, but you can't ever forget who you are because then who (or what?) are you bringing to the partnership?  I feel blessed that Ira and I have many similar passions--classic movies, terrific restaurants, the list goes on--but he also allows me the freedom to indulge my personal passions, and I love that he's a guy's guy in his love of sports and play and I try always to encourage him to be who he is.  

 My heart goes out to Courtney and David and to all of those couples--famous and otherwise--who struggle to find themselves inside of their relationship!