Cadoro, or Cadoro Jewels Corporation, was a

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

-based jewelry company founded in 1954 by Steven Brody and Daniel Stoenescu (aka Staneskieu), specialising in fashionable costume jewelry sold via department stores such as

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus is an American department store chain founded in 1907 in Dallas, Texas by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Abraham Lincoln Neiman. It has been owned by Saks Global, a Corporate spin-off, spin-o ...

and

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain founded in 1867 by Andrew Saks. The first store opened in the F Street and 7th Street shopping districts, F Street shopping distric ...

. The company closed in 1987 following Brody's retirement as president.

Company history

Steven Stuart Brody (1919 or 1926, Philadelphia – 23 December 1994) initially studied business administration at Wharton School, Pennsylvania, then attended the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on a full scholarshi ...

. After a stint as an actor in radio soap operas, he went to Paris, where he met Daniel Stoenescu (1921-after 1970), son of the Romanian artist Eustațiu Stoenescu, and nephew of Princess Ghika, who proposed they go into jewelry design together. Cadoro, which was launched on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

, became known for inventive jewelry which used chenille and plastics alongside more traditional crystals, brushed gold, and enamel for designs which were bought by the likes of the Duchess of Windsor and

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...

. In 1969, Cadoro also designed body jewellery in the form of filigree bras and breastplates for wearing with trendy

see-through clothing See-through clothing is any garment of clothing made with lace, mesh or sheer fabric that allows the wearer's body or undergarments to be seen through its fabric. See-through fabrics have been fashionable at various times in history, ranging from ...

to enable followers of fashion to preserve their modesty. Cadoro's metal "breastplates" were inspired by a statue of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

found at

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

. The following year in 1970 Brody and Stoenescu were two of a group of costume jewelry designers awarded special Coty Awards, alongside Alexis Kirk,

Marty Ruza Marty Ruza of "Ruza Creations"/"Elegant Belts" was an American designer of leather fashion accessories who won a Coty Award for jewelry design in 1970. He was described by the fashion journalist Eleanor Lambert as the "leader of the fringed leathe ...

, Cliff Nicholson and the first black recipient of a Coty, Bill Smith. Cadoro designs for that year were Indian-themed, following on from an African and

Pre-Columbian art Pre-Columbian art refers to the Visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Americas, visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North America, North, Central America, Central, and South Americas from at least 13,000 BCE to the European con ...

-inspired collection in polished wood and carved gold and silver. Examples of Cadoro jewelry are held by the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

. Brody became president of the company in 1960, and when he retired in 1987, the company also closed down. He died at the

Beth Israel Medical Center Mount Sinai Beth Israel was a 799-bed teaching hospital in Manhattan. It was part of the Mount Sinai Health System, a nonprofit health system formed in September 2013 by the merger of Continuum Health Partners and Mount Sinai Medical Center, and ...

on December 23, 1994, of pneumonia following a long illness.

References

{{Authority control Design companies established in 1954 Design companies disestablished in 1987 American jewelry designers Jewelry companies of the United States 1954 establishments in New York City 1987 disestablishments in New York City