Kimberly La Du can trace her passion and dedication to this single and singular professional field to a piece of advice her dad gave her while growing up back in Franklin Lakes, N.J., where she attended Indian Hills High School.
Kimberly La Du is co-owner of Manfredi Jewels at 72 Elm St. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
She would go on to earn a double bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. with her father’s words in mind.
“He said, ‘That [degree] is going to take you anywhere. Once you find your niche, if you have that base education, you can do anything with it,’ ” La Du, a Darien mother of three, recalled on a recent morning from her office at 72 Elm St. “So I just found my way into jewelry and watches and haven’t left it. I’ve stayed with it my whole career.”
And that career—the last 11 years of which have been spent in this very space, as a buyer and director for its previous occupant—just took an exciting turn.
Manfredi at 72 Elm St. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
On Feb. 19, La Du officially opened the doors of Manfredi Jeweler at 72 Elm, as co-owner of the Greenwich-founded company’s second store.
It’s the first time La Du has taken the reins of a business in a field that she says has offered her a rare combination of challenge, camaraderie, teamwork and a chance to make people very, very happy.
“This is a dream come true,” she said.
“I have always had that desire to be an entrepreneur and have my own business. I kind of looked at it that I was an ‘intra-preneur’: I always worked within other agencies, but I always put my heart and soul into it. So this is a dream come true.”
Asked about just how it transpired that she now co-owns a jewelry store in the same space and for whose prior tenant, Henry C. Reid, she herself had worked, La Du said that many years ago, the prior owner said he “might be interested in retiring, and there might be an opportunity for me to purchase the business.”
“So it was something that I worked on for many, many years and was really happy when I was able to make it happen,” she said. “This is a step that I’ve made that I feel really excited about, and to have [Manfredi founder and owner] Roberto [Chiappelloni]’s support to make this dream come true as my partner has just been an amazing experience.”
Many New Canaanites will know Manfredi’s, a mainstay of Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich for 27 years. Plans for the New Canaan store include a Rolex boutique, and Manfredi will be the only shop in town that sells that product.
La Du started working in jewelry while still a student at Babson, for Neiman Marcus Precious Jewels, and would go on to work with Saks Fifth Ave in Jewelry, Independent Jewelers, Denver-based Hyde Park and jewelry designer Leslie Greene prior to moving to Darien in 2003 and starting soon after in New Canaan.
La Du called the world of jewelry “a very small world” that is still international.
“I love the fact that I have access to the most beautiful product,” she said. “I can call Italy, I can set up meetings in Basel—I’m going in a few weeks—and bring the best of the best back home at a level that some others may not be able to do. I can move quickly and bring beautiful things. I love the people I work with, I love the customers. I think it’s just a really intimate industry and it’s a kind industry. It’s a kind customer base.”
And La Du in more than a decade has become familiar with New Canaan customers and a community whose support she called “overwhelming”
“It is not our goal to reach far for new clients, I only want the chance to meet all the town residents and earn their business,” she said. “I want to work with my neighbors to keep New Canaan residents shopping in New Canaan. This town has so much to offer its residents, there is not need to travel to shop for ones self or find the perfect gift.”
La Du—an active fundraiser at Eagle Hill School in Greenwich, which her son attends (twin girls go to Holmes School in Darien)—is a big local shopper herself.
Favorites, she said, include the restaurants in town (“I wish I could be motivated to pack my own lunch, but everyone else’s food is better than mine so I’m always out”), Walin & Wolff (“I bought a great pair of boots”—very high heels, black suede, to be worn in Basel), Blue Mercury for cosmetics (“I am always loving whatever their advice is to make me feel pretty”), Crew Cuts for the girls, Vineyard Vines for her son’s school wardrobe and J. Crew for herself.
As a store owner, La Du said she’s in lock-step with Chiappelloni in terms of philosophy about fine jewelry: “I think that we are Roberto and I are really focused on satisfying the client and in today’s economy, it is difficult for us to compete with New York City and the Internet, and I think that we really want our relationships in the store to become the key motivator for success.”
La Du readily adds that “there is nothing that we do that people need—we are in the luxury world. But I think we make people happy. I like making people happy. I want to celebrate life, celebrate occasions and I think the technical experience within the industry and knowing the product, and bringing that into more of an emotional purpose is just exciting to me.”
Manfredi Jewels at 72 Elm St. in New Canaan (203-966-8705) is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Look out for a bulletin about a Grand Opening once the Rolex boutique is installed.