Starry Eyed Brings Bling for Your Buck

If it glitters and you can wear it, and when your girlfriends look at it they ask, “Where did you get that?” there's a good chance the answer is .

The tiny jewelry boutique on Haddon Avenue close to the entrance into Haddonfield has been filling jewelry boxes of local women for years. Even the jewelry boxes may have come from Starry Eyed.

Crammed into this tiny shop, about the size of a living room in a 1930s rowhouse with vintage wallpaper still in place, are accessories to hunger for. Intermingled with a few choice antiques, like a pair of pewter eyeglass cases, are the trendiest jewelry items.

Don’t confuse this with a mall store that sells earrings and accessories. The items here are individually chosen by owner Danielle Ergood, who learned the ins and outs of selecting stock from mother, Marilyn Minniti. Minniti owned and ran the shop from 1978 until Ergood assumed ownership about two and a half years ago.

She wasn’t always pulled into the lure of costume jewelry, said Ergood. When they were children, she and her sister were more interested in running down Haddon Avenue to the or meeting friends in town.

But along the way she absorbed the interest and the know-how and now she opens her jewelry cases to nationally recognized designers. Surprisingly, she said, no local jewelry designers have jumped on her invitation to add their creations to her inventory.

A resident of Mount Laurel, Ergood is in tune with trends, like the push for dangling but light-weight earrings. Turquoise jewelry will be hot this summer, she predicts, and so will coral.

Ergood finds her designers at jewelry shows in Manhattan, where her mother goes along, and at regional craft shows. Items in the shop range from $15 to $300.

Going to the jewelry shows with her mother is still enlightening, she says. Minniti will look at a display and comment that she carried that line of earrings, necklaces, and bracelets years ago.

A decade ago, the shop was known for its offerings of sterling silver jewelry. Today, it’s Swarovski crystals and items that burst with color and detail.

Creations of designer Anne Koplik, who adorns female contestants on Dancing with the Stars, fill one display.

“Crystals brighten everything,” said Ergood, but adds that women who succumbed to the trend of heavy earrings years ago have learned to search for more light-weight baubles.

“It’s still all about the bling,” Ergood says as she straightens a hanging rack of pave type earrings from Nadri.

Her favorite jewelry line, she says, is LaVie Parisienne, created by California designer Catherine Popesco. “It’s a vintage look, something you’d expect to find at an estate sale,” she said.

Nearby—everything in this shop is nearby—is a revolving rack of greeting cards that only girlfriends or long-marrieds would give each other. It’s a challenge to read the messages without laughing out loud.

Hair accessories are displayed, along with belts, bookmarks, perfume bottles and what can only be described as bibelot, trinkets you don’t need but somehow can’t leave without—something as beguiling as a jeweled frog candle holder or a paperweight reminiscent of a special visit to the beach.

While it’s primarily a shop that accessorizes women, Starry Eyed carries a limited offering of cuff links, card holders and money clips for men.

“Trends in jewelry change and we have it all, from conservative and hand-crafted to wild, artsy looking items. And we cover all the price points."

Ergood maintains a website, staryeyedjewelry.com, that includes close-up photos of individual pieces.

The shop is open Tuesday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed Sunday and Monday. The phone number is 856-429-4011.