Your husband buys a building and offers you your very own jewelry store. Are you taking it?
It is an offer Kathleen Treude-Vaughan could not resist.
“I love jewelry. Who doesn’t, right?” offered Treude-Vaughan, owner of Fishtown Jewelers.
“[It’s] beautiful. It’s an accessory. It’s an investment. I just love… the trends of it, selling it, buying it, making it.
“When somebody comes in and we can make the jewelry they designed, it’s so personalized.”
Between the store’s origin and its employees, Fishtown Jewelers is a family owned and operated affair. When customers come in to repurpose an historic heirloom – they know that trust and respect are two of the most important aspects of dealing with emotional items.
“Whether it was Grandma’s pin or an old wedding band, [customers] get to make it their own,” said Treude-Vaughan. “It’s a new piece they’ll get to have and treasure.
“Precious metal or not, it’s just exciting.”
As partners in a small business, Treude-Vaughan and her daughter, Christine – who formerly worked in nursing – take pride in their store. They like the fact that they “can always tweak [their] world,” striving to improve Fishtown Jewelers and the customer experience every day.
“We all love our job,” offered Treude-Vaughan. “… We couldn’t see [ourselves] doing anything else.
“How lucky I found what I really love to do.”
From reimagining beloved masterpieces and working on simple repairs, to creating something brand new or even finding the jewelry of one’s dreams, customers can count on Fishtown Jewelers to craft or carry exactly what they have in mind.
“We’re very hands-on with our jewelry,” Treude-Vaughan said. “We work with you from start to finish.”
Whether a customer needs a gemstone reset, a chain repaired or a watch battery replaced, customer satisfaction is Fishtown Jewelers’ priority making sure customers leave the store with every single piece cleaned, polished and properly sized.
In charge of the repair department, Treude-Vaughan’s daughter is “extremely particular…very creative…and makes sure things are 100 percent right.”
Of course, discovering new, modern pieces can be just as exciting as exploring ways to breathe life into older items passed down through generations.
Coming up on 20 years, Fishtown Jewelers continues to handpick all its jewelry from different companies based in cities ranging from Los Angeles to New York City, selecting pieces that their clientele will love.
The eclectic range of items spans both geographic locations and time.
“I love estate jewelry,” Treude-Vaughan shared, “and more vintage unique 20’s and 40’s jewelry.”
Customers can find luxurious emeralds set in gold bracelets and stunning, yet simple silver necklaces to radiant lab-grown diamond rings and elegantly themed jewelry that celebrates causes, like Breast Cancer awareness.
Treude-Vaughan is second generation to Fishtown. Her father “absolutely loved” living in town.
“I really wish he was here to see the store,” she reflected.
With the continuing growth of Fishtown as “a cool place to live, eat and stay,” there’s no other place Treude-Vaughan wants to be.
“It’s really about having a little jewelry store, being happy, and having customers leave happy,” she said and to top it off, she gets to work side by side with her daughter.
“I hope the future of Fishtown Jewelers stays alive with my daughter.”
