Listening to Brooke Garber Neidich speak about fine jewelry is an exercise in palpable passion—even if she didn’t set out to step into the footsteps of her late father, famed Chicago jeweler Sidney Garber. It was clearly in the genes.

Sidney Garber’s jewelry journey began in 1946, and he was in Chicago’s Mallers building until the late 1960s. His boutique on the city’s upscale Michigan Avenue was the destination for elegant jewelry.

Mr. Garber passed away in 2008, and since Brooke inherited Sidney Garber Fine Jewelry, she has taken the business to the next level.

Her father’s story provides a fascinating view into a changing, post-war world and the timeless allure and magic of fine jewelry, even in these pandemic times as Sidney Garber marks its 75^th anniversary.

Mr. Garber first made a name for himself in the Mallers Building. Mechanical and dexterous, he started assembling watches (his own father had a tiny space repairing watches). The more his reputation grew, the more customers asked him to also find jewelry for special moments.

“His eye, his taste, the way he dressed…he always had that Italian Sprezzatura,” Brooke recalls, sitting in her own elegant boutique on Madison Avenue. “I remember the family story that he had his air force uniforms tailored at Saks Fifth Avenue. He didn’t come from that environment, but somehow, he felt that was what he should be doing.”

As for Brooke  herself, jewelry played a central role in her life practically since birth. By the time she was 5, she hopped on the city’s famed elevated train to visit her father in the boutique.

“I remember very clearly sitting on the floor in front of the safe, with a tray, playing with the charms,” Brooke remembers. “The charms all moved, and it was exciting, and then I got to see him. I loved going to the store. I remember the first time I was allowed to windex the cases and the first time I was allowed to put the watches out. Then, I ran the errands—for the rings to be sized, for the pearls to be strung, for the stones to be set.”

As the business grew, so did Sidney Garber’s desire to elevate his jewelry even further, and father and daughter traveled to Europe – from Milan to Idar-Oberstein to Paris – to find the best stones and jewelry pieces.

But no sparkle could keep her from leaving her hometown for New York City. “I came to New York to get away from my family,” she says. “I came to New York to go to college. I came to New York because I didn’t want to be in the jewelry business. I didn’t want to be in any business. I really wanted to get married and have children.”

She married Daniel Neidich, had three children, got involved in their schools, became a Whitney Museum of American Art and Lincoln Center Theater Trustee, and started the Child Mind Institute with Dr. Harold Koplewicz, which is groundbreaking and thriving today.

A Christmas trip to Chicago became a changemaking moment for Brooke. “My birthday is on Christmas Eve, and there was nothing in the store that I wanted for myself,” she recalls. “And so I went to my father and said, ‘would you like to go back to Europe? I could go with you,’ and that January, we went.”

Fast forward to her taking over the business, opening the Madison Avenue boutique, and starting wholesale when Barneys New York reached out after both Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen wore her bracelets for their handbag collection at the store. Like the sisters’ much-acclaimed fashion label The Row, Brooke’s jewelry speaks from woman to woman, although she never really considered her impact until the year allowed her a moment of reflection.

“I was just so conscious of my father and his legacy that I kind of skipped over the idea,” she explains. “I just thought I was recreating what he did. As I talked about it more this year, I realized I did actually bring something … a woman’s sensibility. I am so conscious of clasps, of what it is to go out at night and then come home and take your necklace and your bracelet off, for example. It was a great party, you’ve had a couple of martinis, and sometimes, you have to sleep with your necklace and bracelet on.”

Another impact is her philanthropy. She gives away all profits from the sales of her jewelry to worthy causes.

As for Brooke’s own favorite pieces, “I love bracelets. I never leave my house without our rolling bracelets which I have been wearing since 1985.”

The latter speaks to the longevity of jewelry and its special meaning to the wearer, something that Brooke understands all too well.

“In Los Angeles, for example, when people wear Lululemon, you need a serious ring,” she explains. “You need the perfect bracelet, you need the right earring.

“Jewelry,” she adds, “is never going to go away.”