March cover of New York Woman.
Clairol is using their accessories in
an international advertising cam-
paign, and a model in the latest
Bonwit Teller brochure wears a pair
of their earrings.
Bonwit Teller stores throughout
the country are among D'Alto-
Soberman accounts. So too, are
Bloomingdales in Manhattan and
Boca Raton and the ultra-exclusive,
ultra-expensive Martha's Trump
Tower shop in New York. The
jewelry is in 32 states throughout the
country. Bon -wit's next-door
neighbor at Somerset Mall in Troy
Anna Bassett's Claire Pearone also
offers their earrings.
Coincidentally, owner Anna
Basset discovered D'Alto-Soberman
merchandise at the Accessories Mart
in New York.
"The jewelry caught my eye
when I went through the mart," says
Bassett. "I selected their jewelry
Fashion designer Mary
McFadden finds the jewelry
a great complement to her
clothes.
because it was unusual and would
go nicely with the summer weight
cottons and linens."
Mary McFadden finds the
jewelry "a great complement to our
clothes. Their colors are extremely
attractive. We give them a color chart
and they dye their jewels to (match)
our colors. What could be better!
They are very involved in texture
and our clothes are textured."
Response from the fashion
world for D'Alto-Soberman jewelry
has been impressive indeed and so
has customer response.
Glenda Greenwald, publisher of
Michigan Woman magazine, loves
the "uniqueness of their jewelry. It's
elegant, sophisticated, very different,
something I haven't seen before. I
have several pairs of earrings and
bracelets. It seems to suit me."
But then again, Florine Mark
Ross, president of WW (Weight
Watchers) Group Inc. thinks it suits
her, almost exclusively.
She also appreciates the unique
quality of the jewelry. "It fits with
everything I wear. Most of what I
have (of their line) is gold and black.
I feel almost as if they're designing
each piece for me. When I see
someone wearing their jewelry, I feel
like telling them it's mine."
Actually, D'Alto, a Southfield
resident, is married to Kenneth
D'Alto, president of Renaissance
Printing Inc., and Soberman, who
teaches at the Birmingham-
Bloomfield Art Association, is
married to Charles Soberman,
president of Mercury Paint Co., has
three children and lives in Hunting-
ton Woods.
Soberman met D'Alto in April of
1987 when D'Alto was considering
a return to the accessory business.
Eleven years ago she had created a
hair accessory line that was featured
in W and Harper's Bazaar. She rented
studio space in Pleasant Ridge from
Soberman, who had gained national
and local recognition as a fiber artist
and furniture designer.
It was an instant, magical
liaison. First they talked design, a
subject they both dearly loved, then
they talked business and within a
month of their first meeting sat
together at the design table.
The next April, just one year
ago, their hand-shake partnership
was legalized and sales for 1988
reached $100,000, with projected
figures of $200,000 for 1989. Two
years from now, predicts D'Alto, "I
see us doing a half-million dollars. I
see us starting to penetrate the
European market and doing
European accessory shows."
D'Alto and Soberman are not
only partners in a promising fashion
jewelry design career, which may
branch into table-top design in the
near future, but the two attractive
women are similar in many ways.
They both grew up in Detroit, are
community-oriented, 44 years old,
have blond highlighted hair and a
penchant for wearing black clothes
no doubt, a backdrop for their
elegant-primitive looking earrings
with the gold leaf signature. Their
backgrounds, however are very
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SPRING '89 31