For years Elana Zajdman studied, pitched, and admired fine jewelry for others, working for fashion magazines Vogue, Marie Claire, and InStyle. But for her next act, Zajdman is taking that expertise one step further into a jewelry business of her own.
Zajdman has founded Estelle Galerie as a home for vintage pieces as well as her own visions for handmade-to-order fine jewelry. The result is what Zajdman calls a “carefully curated repository” that highlights her global travels, her eye for heirlooms, and her friendships with jewelry artists across continents.
In some ways her past is influencing her present. The business is named after Zajdman’s grandmother, whose jewelry and style influences Zajdman to this day.
“She introduced me to the love of jewelry,” Zajdman says. “So when I knew I had reached my peak in the editing world and wondered what’s next, I knew it was my jewelry.”
Zajdman’s childhood was one of contrasts—she was born in sunny Los Angeles, but her family moved to Vermont when she was a tween. Zajdman describes the switch as “culture shock,” taking her from a busy city to “living in the middle of nowhere.”
Weekend visits with her grandparents to New York City kept that infatuation with city life going. Add in her interest in fashion and an early desire to work in magazines, and Zajdman was already planning her career while a young student.
“A friend of my grandmother was working at W as a features director, and we had lunch with her one weekend,” Zajdman says. “She was such a kind person. She gave me my first glimpse into the different types of magazine editors. Some are stylists, some are writers, some are text editors. I wanted to be a market editor and stylist at first. I had gotten my mission, and knew I needed to get out of Vermont and get to New York City.”
Zajdman started noticing bylines and determined she would find a job in magazines through sheer determination. If no one told her how to get an internship, she’d have to figure it out on her own. She called random numbers at magazine giant Condé Nast until she reached the human resources department. With perseverance, Zajdman got a short stint at Harper’s Bazaar and later her coveted internship in Vogue’s New York office.
She did the same thing when she wanted stylist experience: Zajdman looked up as many stylists as she could in the earliest days of the World Wide Web and began emailing everyone. She got one response, but that was all she needed.
A key mentor at this time was Candy Pratts Price, the noted Vogue creative director. Price’s creativity was legendary and well earned, Zajdman says.
“I’d go with her to stores and jewelry appointments, and I learned so much from her. She had such insights into these incredible heritage brands,” Zajdman says. “That’s when I grew to love accessories and jewelry. They were way more exciting to me than even fashion. It was a different way to look at the runway.… You really have to know the market and do the research. It can’t be cookie-cutter.”
Zajdman’s most important role came at Marie Claire, during the heady era of big budgets and bigger egos in New York magazine publishing. She remembers pulling dozens of brands of fine jewelry lines and draping models in every name you could imagine.
This is where Zajdman started to dream about jewelry—but that dream was what she could make on her own. “I was seeing so much of the same things that I wanted to make something totally different,” Zajdman says.
She moved to InStyle in May 2016 as its senior accessories and jewelry editor, but her pull toward creating her own jewelry grew even stronger when she traveled to places like India. She was finding unique antiques and exploring markets to seek out vintage pieces. She also was designing her own pieces that were made-to-order but felt modern yet timeless.
Then, with the coronavirus pandemic, InStyle folded as a print publication. Zajdman wanted to go into jewelry and came up with the idea for Estelle Galerie, which debuted with curated drops that are a mix of her own designs and heirloom pieces she discovers in her travels.
“I figured out my way,” Zajdman says with a laugh.
Top: Elana Zajdman launched her jewelry curation brand Estelle Galerie in 2022. It is named after her grandmother and offers both heirloom pieces Zajdman finds while traveling and new jewelry she designs. (Photo courtesy of Estelle Galerie)
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