{"id":29845,"date":"2015-08-04T15:33:30","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T19:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=29845"},"modified":"2015-08-04T15:33:30","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T19:33:30","slug":"what-wendy-wore-double-vintage-to-the-wja-gala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/what-wendy-wore-double-vintage-to-the-wja-gala\/","title":{"rendered":"What Wendy Wore: Double Vintage to the WJA Gala"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Women’s Jewelry Association’s 2015 Awards for Excellence Gala took place last Monday. If you’re in the jewelry biz, it’s a great organization to join. WJA’s mission<\/a>, as described on its website, is, “To help women in the jewelry and watch industries advance and develop professionally through networking, education, leadership development and the provision of member services.” Men can join too!<\/p>\n

All kinds of exciting things happened at the gala. It was great to know that one of WJA’s earliest — and oldest — members was there. Peggy Kirby is now 102 years old! My friend Peggy Jo Donahue posed for an Instagram photo with Peggy Kirby <\/a>and noted that the latter “remembers what it was like to be a young working woman in the jewelry industry in the 1930s! Peggy endured … and led the way for the rest of us. I am proud to share her name.”<\/p>\n

There were two award winners at my table<\/a>. Deborah Nicodemus, the chief executive officer of online luxury retailer Moda Operandi<\/a>, won for nontraditional retail, while my gorgeous friend Monica Stephenson won the editorial award for her website, iDazzle.com<\/a>. I got to celebrate a second time with Monica later in the week, but that’s a story for another blog post. In the meantime, check out the very lovely and true comments from Barbara Palumbo of Adornmentality<\/a> in this Instagram caption.<\/p>\n

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This photo by Bart Gorin of @idazzle accepting her award for Excellence in Media at this year’s @womensjewelryassociation Awards for Excellence epitomizes how much grace this woman has. Monica, I’m a believer that the word “love” has become a “throw away” word these days, and that it’s overused and has lost the luster once saved for genuine adoration and truly heartfelt endearment. Having said that, I love you. I really love you, and I’m so proud of you. Congratulations. #wjaawards15 #photo #winning #media #editorial #amazeballs #myfriend #soproud #womenrule #empoweroneanother #makeitmeansomething #theresnothinggreater #jewelrypeople #writers #bloggers<\/a><\/p>\n

A photo posted by Adornmentality.com (@adornmentality) on