How I Got Here: Mindi Mond on the Slow Burn It Took to Build Her Brand
Step into Mindi Mond’s home office, and the first thing that strikes you is the atmosphere—it feels less like a corporate workspace and more like a curated wing of a natural history museum. The room is alive with the silent, glittering energy of the earth. Everywhere you look, there are geological wonders: geodes that crack open to reveal purple amethyst hearts, jagged clusters of quartz, and minerals that hum with ancient history.
But you won’t find the typical jeweler’s stash of loose diamonds, polished rubies, or strung pearls on display here. Instead, Mond surrounds herself with the raw, unpolished architecture of nature.
The pièce de résistance of this personal geology museum sits commanding attention in the corner: a massive, nearly 400-pound specimen of pyrite. This isn’t just a paperweight; it is a structural marvel of metallic luster, often called “fool’s gold,” though there is nothing foolish about its imposing presence. The stone is so significant that Mond couldn’t simply place it on a side table. She had to hire a steel company to engineer and construct a custom, weight-bearing stand just to support the sparkly behemoth.
“Every sample she collects is labeled and loved,” Mond says, gesturing to the array of crystals that line her shelves. But these stones serve a purpose beyond mere decoration. They are a daily tribute, a tangible connection to the woman who first taught Mond to look down at the earth and see potential: her mother.
The Geological Foundation: A Childhood Among Stones
“My mother introduced me to stones,” Mond reflects, her voice softening with memory. “When she loved something, she collected it.”
Mond’s mother, Shirley, was not your average suburban matriarch. She was a woman possessed of a fierce, unconventional creativity—an “out of the box” thinker who didn’t just admire art but lived it. Mond recalls her childhood as a time when creativity was a hands-on, communal activity.
“She was a big inspiration in my life,” Mond explains. “She was so artistic and out of the box in everything she did. If she wanted a stone wall built by our house, she didn’t call a contractor. She’d collect all the kids to bring her rocks.”
One can easily visualize the scene: a brood of children scouring the yard and neighborhood for the perfect stones, dragging them back to Shirley, who was mixing the cement herself. “We’d build it together,” Mond says. That stone wall became more than a boundary marker for their home; it was a foundational lesson for Mond. It taught her that beautiful things are built piece by piece, with your own hands, and that raw materials can be transformed into enduring structures if you have the vision to see them that way.
Today, Mond continues to build on that rock-loving legacy. Her eponymous jewelry brand, Mindi Mond New York, is the spiritual successor to those childhood construction projects. It blends her deep-seated expertise in estate and antique jewelry with breathtaking new collections she designs herself—creating a bridge between the past and the present.
From Fashion Avenue to Family Life: The First Chapter
Long before she was designing Art Deco-inspired diamond chokers or reimagining Victorian brooches, Mond was immersed in the high-volume world of the New York City garment industry.
She joined the workforce in 1985, a time when the fashion district was a frenetic hub of production. For over a decade, Mond navigated the fast-paced environment of moderately priced clothing brands. It was a world defined by “volume”—moving units, hitting mass-market trends, and managing scale. It was a grueling education in the business of fashion, but it was one she eventually felt ready to leave behind.
By 1997, Mond’s life had pivoted. She got married and began a family, happily trading the chaos of the garment district for the rhythms of motherhood. “I was happy to switch roles to full-time mom when her babies were born,” she notes. The garment industry’s relentless cycle was replaced by the softer, albeit equally demanding, schedule of raising two children.
However, the creative spark that Shirley had ignited in her never truly went out. It just went dormant, waiting for the right moment to re-emerge.
The Renaissance: Reimagining the Past
The turning point came as her children grew older and entered the world of preschool. Suddenly, Mond found herself with a new commodity: time.
“Preschool was what, four or five hours? I would go antiquing and I started to explore,” Mond recalls.
It wasn’t just aimless shopping; it was a return to her roots. She began visiting the private estate-company showrooms she had frequented as a child. Being the youngest of four, Mond had often been “dragged along” by her mother to these exclusive dealers—cavernous, dusty spaces filled with the treasures of bygone eras.
“I was 6 or 7, and I remember to this day sitting and playing on the floor at these dealers in enormous spaces while my mother went through the new acquisitions that they brought,” Mond says. The smell of old velvet, the glint of gold under dim lights, and the thrill of the hunt were imprinted on her psyche.
Because her mother had been such a prolific and friendly collector, the dealers welcomed Mond back with open arms. “She was friendly with them, so they let her rummage through these big boxes and find the pieces she loved,” Mond remembers. Decades later, that goodwill extended to the next generation. “I’d go to the estate dealers my mother knew and they’d let me in because I was Shirley’s daughter.”
The Art of the Remix: Repurposing Antique Treasures
This access to high-quality antique components became the catalyst for Mindi Mond New York. Mond didn’t start by sketching new designs on a blank sheet of paper; she started by deconstructing the past.
She bought antique gems and finished pieces with the specific intent to take them apart and give them a second life—a process she refers to as “re-imagining.” She would find a heavy, perhaps outdated Victorian brooch, disassemble it, and transform it into a pair of modern earrings or a delicate necklace. It was upcycling at its most luxurious level.
“I knew bench jewelers who could do this kind of work,” Mond explains, highlighting the technical difficulty of her early creations. This wasn’t a job for a novice repair shop. “You have to be an old-timer who knows how to work with these kinds of pieces. You have to know where you can or cannot apply heat, or what you need lasers for.”
Antique metals, particularly old platinum and gold, behave differently than modern alloys. A single mistake with a torch could melt a setting or crack a hundred-year-old diamond. Mond’s genius lay in bridging her vision with the hands of master craftsmen who possessed the rare skills to execute it.
Breaking the Mold: The Birth of a Brand
Initially, this was a passion project. Mond was making jewelry for herself, wearing her creations to dinners and school events. But the pieces spoke for themselves. Friends, acquaintances, and even strangers began to stop her. They would point to her earrings or her necklace and ask the question that launches a thousand businesses: “Where can I find something like that?”
“After selling a few pieces, her dealer friends began to encourage Mond to start her own jewelry business,” she says.
It was a natural progression, but one she approached with the “slow burn” mentality. “Lo and behold, those first finished pieces turned into a small jewelry collection.” The collection needed a home, so Mond built a website. She understood that in the modern era, digital presence was as important as the physical product. She pursued listing her pieces on 1stDibs, a premier online marketplace for luxury antiques and design, and successfully gained entry.
This was the spark. Jewelry editors, always on the hunt for something unique that didn’t look like the mass-produced items in department stores, started to take notice.
The Celebrity Spark: Recognition from Vogue to Gigi Hadid
The trajectory of the brand shifted vertically when the fashion elite began to endorse it. It is one thing to have a local following; it is another to see your work in the pages of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
“Those magazine experiences gave me more confidence,” Mond admits. At the time, she was still navigating the balance of entrepreneurship and motherhood. “I had a young family. I didn’t have a big budget to invest.”
Doubt is a constant companion for any founder, but Mond had a strong support system. “My husband encouraged me to give jewelry a shot. ‘Having two major editors believe in me wasn’t an accident,’ he’d say.”
And then came the celebrity validation. “Let’s just say having your earliest jewelry pieces show up on Gigi Hadid helps establish your new brand pretty quickly,” Mond says with a smile. Seeing one of the world’s most photographed supermodels wearing Mindi Mond New York was a signal to the industry: this brand had arrived.
Education and Expansion: Mastering the Craft
Realizing her brand was on the precipice of major growth, Mond decided she needed to back up her intuitive eye with technical knowledge. She wasn’t content to just be a “designer”; she wanted to be an expert.
Mond started taking formal jewelry classes. She jumped into the complex world of diamond grading and learned from professional appraisers. She studied the 4Cs (cut, color, clarity, carat) and the intricacies of colored gemstones. This education allowed her to communicate more effectively with her bench jewelers and retailers, ensuring that the quality of her “modern heirlooms” was unimpeachable.
She founded Mindi Mond New York officially in 2009. What started as a small repurposing project has evolved into a comprehensive brand featuring distinct collections—from the geometric, diamond-heavy “Clarity” collection to the colorful “Hues.”
Building Relationships: The Retail Philosophy
Today, Mindi Mond’s pieces are stocked in exclusive jewelry stores and coveted by collectors. Yet, despite the glamour of press coverage and celebrity placements, Mond remains deeply grounded in the human aspect of the business.
“One retailer led to another,” she says, describing her organic growth strategy. She doesn’t view retailers as mere distribution channels but as partners in her story.
“I cherish the retailers that appreciate what I’ve created and gave me a chance. I take that really seriously,” Mond emphasizes. She is known for being hands-on. “I go to stores. I meet with their teams. I want them to get to know me and learn about the jewelry. They can text me anytime.”
This personal touch—the willingness to be available, to educate sales staff, and to share the story behind every stone—is what separates a flash-in-the-pan trend from a legacy brand.
Conclusion: The Joy of the Slow Burn
Looking back at the journey—from the little girl mixing cement for a stone wall to the founder of a luxury jewelry house—Mond sees a consistent thread of passion and patience. She didn’t rush the process. She let the brand grow as she grew, layer by sedimentary layer.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Mond reflects, looking around her office where the 400-pound pyrite still sparkles on its custom steel stand. “It’s also been a lot of hard work, but it doesn’t feel like hard work when you love it.”
For Mindi Mond, the “slow burn” wasn’t just about taking her time; it was about ensuring that the fire she was building would last, fueled by creativity, family legacy, and an enduring love for the stones that started it all.
