About Chandler Jewelry

Kendall V. Bretto, founder and president, is a graduate of Howard University who abandoned her medical school track to follow a passion for innovative jewelry design. Nearly ten years ago she embarked on an adventure of self-study, turning to painting, sculpture, and cultural anthropology for inspiration for distinctive jewelry expressions for neck, head-wear, hands, torso, and even face.

Bretto has developed an A-list of custom clients from theatre, fashion retail, nightclub, and socialite wedding planners, who have turned to her for consulting advice, material resources, and actual design.

In 2003, she began showing limited collections on Boston's "little Milan" section of Newbury Street, where word of mouth quickly grew, and at fashion runway showings in Boston and Manhattan. Bretto also has served as consultant and designer for The New York Film Festival.

Launched in spring 2005, her new company, Chandler Jewelry, encompasses a full portfolio of day and evening jewelry. Her current portfolio includes facial jewels, African-collective designs adapted for sophisticated fashion wear using capiz and cont'd ojo stones, as well as men's neck and wrist wear.

Bretto, who has traveled and worked with local artists in villages and cities on Africa's West Coast, including her native Cape Verde, plans to expand Chandler Jewelry from its on-line site to three store sites in Boston, Georgetown, and Manhattan, later this year.