Simon G.

Simon G.

When he left his family and friends in Beirut and immigrated to New York City in 1976 at age 19, Simon Ghanimian planned on continuing the education he’d begun at Haigazian College in Lebanon and becoming a civil engineer. The $200 in his pocket wouldn’t quite cover tuition and other expenses, though, so two weeks after his arrival, at the suggestion of relatives living in the States, he turned to jewelry—a hobby he’d cultivated since he was 14—and went looking for a seat at the bench. He eventually found one. “Finally, one guy said, ‘OK, we’ll give you a try,’” Ghanimian recalls—and discovered it suited him just fine. “At that time in New York, the jewelry business was rocking. I liked it so much, I got obsessed with it.”

That summer, he vacationed in Los Angeles and liked it enough to move there. In 1980, he met his wife, Silvia — she was working in a jewelry store, naturally — and the next year, he founded Simon G. Jewelry. The last two and a half decades have been, as they say, history. INSTORE readers recently named Simon G. one of the top 10 “brands you don’t have that you want in your store,” and the designer made a celebrity splash in 2005 when actor Jerry O'Connell stopped by for a five-carat fancy yellow oval mounting to propose to actress Rebecca Romijn. But Ghanimian keeps it relatively humble. Silvia and two of their three children now work at the business, and he’s just happy things have worked out so well. “Thank God,” he says, “somebody’s watching me.”

 

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