b'Jennifer Gandia & Christina Gandia Gambale Finding Their Way Home would be an easier life [for us]. Thats how they saw it. And they also Both Jennifer and Christina say they found their way into thewanted us to be happy. They wanted us to do what we wanted to do. jewelry business organically. As children,The more visually creative of the two they didnt necessarily think theyd growsistersthe right brain, if you willup to work at their parents store and theirJennifer loved fashion from a young age. parents didnt encourage them to, either. She graduated with a degree in Carlos and Milly Gandia wantedmarketing from New Yorks Fashion for Jennifer and Christina what mostInstitute of Technology, eventually earn-parents want for their childrenforing what she thought was the ultimate them to find happiness by followingjob: public relations manager at a major their passions.company, NARS Cosmetics. They also, Jennifer and ChristinaThen 9/11 happened. The unthink-would later come to learn, wanted theirable tragedy caused Jennifer to reassess girls to find a job that was less gruelingher life.than that of a small business owner.She determined that her job, the one Both hailing from Puerto Rico,she had worked so hard to get, wasnt Carlos and Milly came from modestwhat she wanted after all. backgrounds, explains Jennifer, theI really felt like I was not as happy eldest by seven years.as I thought I would be doing the work They built their business fromCarlos and Milly Gandia opened their jewelry store in 1976, naming it afterI was doing, she says. It didnt fulfill nothing and, with no safety net, feltthe Lower Manhattan street it called homeGreenwich Street. me in a certain way. I didnt even really the constant pressure that weighs onknow what that meant. I just knew I business owners who know they have to make it work. didnt want to do it that much longer. They gave a lot and they worked really hard at it, Jennifer says.So she took a year off and headed abroad, settling in Barcelona, They thought going and working for someone else, doing a 9-to-5,Spain. As she walked up and down the citys hilly streets, she found The store, rebranded as Greenwich St. Jewelers in 2016, moveduptown in 2022 to a new, fully refurbished space in New YorksTriBeCa neighborhood. (Photo credit: Tom Sibley) NATIONAL JEWELER 19'