OyChicago articles

Jennifer takes a chance on the family business

It sounds like the kind of wish you’d make if you were Aladdin and had found the Genie’s lamp: To get the chance to travel the world and buy one-of-a-kind jewels and exquisite fabrics—and get paid for it. But for third-generation jeweler Jennifer Sydel, living the dream is just part of the job. Growing up in the jewelry business and studying historic costume design at NYU, the 24-year-old honed her skills designing costumes for Broadway shows like Mamma Mia, Wicked, and The Lion King before returning to her native Chicago and opening her own jewelry design studio, JSydel Inc.

So whether you’re looking to jazz up an old family heirloom, are a closet ABBA fan, or love rye bread, Jennifer Sydel is a Jew you should know!

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be in the design world. I knew it was either going to be something related to fashion or jewelry. I always wanted to be a fashion designer, and maybe one day I still will be, but I was able to get into the design world first. And I always knew I wanted to be my own boss and open my own business.

2. What do you love about what you do today?
What I love the most is working one-on-one with a client. I love the dialogue that comes from somebody bringing me an heirloom piece or a gem they’ve had in their hands for a long time and saying, “I’d love for you to design something for me.” Half of my designs come from the story my client tells me. Jewelry is so personal. It’s something that only you as the client, and the person who has made it for you, can understand. To recreate an experience in a new place and time is special.

3. What are you reading?
I just finished  Life of Pi , which I loved. A couple of months ago I read a biography of Coco Chanel. I really respect, and kind of idolize, her in a sense. The way she changed the way people thought of her product is interesting. I try to incorporate that mentality into my work as well.

4. What’s your favorite place to eat in Chicago?
I would have to say Brasserie Jo. Their drinks are amazing. And their salmon is to die for. And their mussels, too. I love mussels.

5. If money and logistical reality played no part, what would you invent?
A little chip that you’d implant into your brain or arm that would absorb everything you ever saw in the world. The smells, the colors, the visuals—input from all the senses—would be absorbed into that chip and you could retrieve any memory.

6. Would you rather have the ability to fly or the ability to be invisible?
That’s a really tough one. Fly. I’ve always wanted to be a bird. A little sparrow. To see perspective from different levels would be incredible.

7. If I scrolled through your iPod, what guilty pleasure song would I find?
You would probably find something by Whitney Houston. Bodyguard-era Whitney Houston.

8.What’s your favorite Jewish thing to do in Chicago—in other words, how do you Jew?
I really love going to Manny’s any chance I can possibly get. Having roast beef and matzah ball soup. Or pastrami on rye. My god. I love rye. And I really do enjoy going to synagogue on Friday night. I don’t go all the time, but I sometimes have to go and be alone—I don’t go with anyone else—and think.