Our Story
In 1974, Margaret Whitmore talked her younger sister Claire into opening a pearl shop on Bay Street in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Claire thought she was out of her mind.
"With what money?" she asked.
"With this," Margaret said, and put their savings on the table.
Claire looked at the number. Looked at her sister. Looked at the number again.
Then she said yes.
That's how it's always worked between them.
For fifty-one years, the shop on Bay Street has been exactly what Margaret said it would be.
A place where women come to find something real.
Not something for a special occasion. Not something to save for the right moment. Something to wear on a Tuesday morning when nobody's watching. Something that sits at your collarbone and quietly says: I made a decision about what I'm worth.
Margaret makes every necklace herself.
She sits at the wooden workbench behind the shop — the same one she's had since 1974 — and picks each baroque pearl by hand. Holds it up to the light. Turns it. Sets it down. Picks it up again.
When it's right, she knows.
The pearls are not perfect. They were never meant to be. Baroque pearls are irregular by nature — each one a slightly different shape, a slightly different weight, a slightly different story. Margaret has always said that's exactly what makes them beautiful.
"The most interesting women I know aren't perfect either," she says.
She's been saying that for fifty years.
Claire runs the front of the shop.
She's the one who remembers that your daughter got married in 2019 and you bought a necklace for the occasion and came back two years later to get one for yourself.
She's the one who notices when a woman walks in and spends twenty minutes at the case without saying anything — and knows that means she's been thinking about this for a long time.
She's the one who says: "Tell me about yourself. Not what you're looking for. Just tell me about yourself."
Between them, Margaret and Claire have helped thousands of women find something they didn't know they were looking for.
Some came in for a gift. Most left with something for themselves too.
Some have been coming back since the 1980s.
Some drove two hours when they heard Margaret was turning 78.
This week, Margaret turns 78.
To celebrate the way she always has — by giving something rather than receiving it — everything in the collection is 50% off through Sunday.
Every piece handmade. Every order with a handwritten note. Free shipping. Free returns.
Because Margaret still believes what she believed in 1974.
Every woman deserves to wear something beautiful.
Not for a special occasion.
Just because she's here. And that's enough.
