After nearly 20 years in Greenwich, Jani Caroli has taken her ability to buy high-quality handmade jewelry to the Web.
Caroli is the former owner of French Country Living, which opened its doors on Greenwich Avenue in 1988 and closed in 2006. The store sold French antiques, French imports and complete home furnishings. Caroli recently returned to Fairfield County with her new Norwalk business, Paris Couture Jewelry and pariscouturejewelry.com.
“After retiring from French Country Living, I was ready to embark on my next journey,” said Caroli. “The online world is very appealing for someone who has spent their life managing retail stores; it”™s very freeing.”
According to 2010 data from the National Retail Federation, 75 percent of new entries to the world of online-only retailing have owned brick-and-mortar businesses.
Caroli grew up in a family of painting aficionados and antique collectors in Marseille, France. It was there her knowledge, passion and love for fine craft art developed.
Caroli has become known nationally as a premier authority in jewelry design. With her new business, she is the only U.S. vendor of handmade jewelry collections of Parisian artisan Didier Peiro, who began his career designing jewelry for the runway shows of Paris”™ haute couture fashion houses. She had seen Peiro”™s unique works during a trip to Paris.
“I formed Paris Couture Jewelry with the hope of sharing on a global level the exquisite work of highly talented jewelry designers who deserve exposure,” said Caroli. “The hand-crafted jewelry by designers like Peiro are truly exceptional. I have the ability to bring them here.”
Caroli said she plans to bring in other artisans to the Paris Couture portfolio.
“The second artisan will be important,” said Caroli. “I”™ll know it when I see it.”
The Didier Peiro works that she now sells range from a few hundred dollar to more than $20,000.
“These are not the type of pieces that you generally make impulse buys,” said Caroli. “The online marketplace allows my customers to consider the piece and know what they are buying.”
Caroli said the holiday season is in full swing and through her online presence she can be nimble with her stock flow, something she said as a store owner can be very challenging.
The Paris Couture site also allows customers to request custom-made orders that are sent directly to the Piero designer.
With necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings and other accessories, the core of Paris Couture Jewelry continues to be the Didier Peiro Collection.
