Between the Moon and New York City: How September 13th Changed Everything

There is a song that captures a certain feeling about this city perfectly. "Between the moon and New York City, I knew I had to choose..." But for me, there was never really a choice. New York, and diamonds, chose me.

September 13th is a date I carry with me always. It was the day I walked through the doors of a wholesale diamond company in New York City and took my very first steps into an industry that would define my life. I did not come in as a designer. I did not come in with a brand. I came in ready to learn everything.

Starting from the Ground Up

I worked my way through that company the way you have to when you truly love something. From the ground floor, absorbing every detail of how this industry operates, how stones are graded, traded, and valued, all the way up through the ranks until I reached Finance Director. Numbers, margins, supplier relationships, the business of diamonds from the inside out. I learned it all.

Those years were not glamorous. They were essential. They gave me something no design school could: a complete understanding of the diamond business, from rough stone to final sale.

Building Something of My Own

Even while I was still deep in that world, something was quietly taking shape. I had started building Mina D Jewelry, piece by piece, alongside everything else. It was not a grand departure. It was a slow, intentional layering of everything I had learned into something that felt entirely mine.

Then Covid arrived, and the world changed overnight. The industry shifted, doors closed, and the path forward became clear in the way that only a crisis can make clear. What I had been quietly building suddenly became the only road.

I did not choose to leave. The moment chose me. But I had been preparing for it longer than I knew.

A City, A Stone, A Dream

New York has a way of making you believe that anything is possible, even when everything feels uncertain. And looking back at that first day, I understand now that stepping into that wholesale diamond company was not just a job. It was the beginning of a blueprint.

Every piece I design today carries that foundation. The craftsmanship, the quality standards, the respect for what a truly exceptional stone can do. That all started here, on this date, in this city.

So on this September 13th, I celebrate not just a date, but a journey. One shaped by hard work, by an industry I gave years to, and by the unexpected turn of a pandemic that pushed me fully into my own.

With love from New York,
Mina