Darrell F.
Yelp
Dear The Internet Jil Maddin at Made You Look is the greatest thing to ever happen in the Jewelry industry AND THAT'S HOW YOU START A REVIEW LETS DO THIS!!!
My fiance and I are both of Indian descent and have some gold that has been passed down through our family but not in a 'rich people' way, in a sentimental way, like necklaces and bangles, etc.
My goal was to make a meaningful and creative engagement ring by melting our golds together a la Lord of the Rings. A friend of mine suggested Made You Look on Queen West in Toronto, and it was here that I met Lord Jilian "Sauron" Maddin who was destined to forge my one ring to rule them all.
I've literally never had a more positive experience in ANY of my experiences in any service industry and I am NOT overstating. From the moment we met, Jil listened to every word of my ambitious project and reciprocated with positive and professional feedback. She was patient and CRAZY understanding of my budget which could only be described as "Sit down, be Humble".
[Side note: When you have a low budget in a jewelry shop you'd THINK that the designers might "Pretty Woman" you and push you to the back of the line to make room for the more baller clients. BUT NO. NO NO NO. Right away, Jilian (and everyone at Made You Look) served me by the merit of my story and not of my monetary worth].
In fact Jil and I energized each other! The whole process was a fun back and forth of texts, IG tags, design refs, gem styles and obscure references for palette and sparkle! I'm pretty sure at one point I tagged her in a Lady Gaga award show outfit and she still somehow knew what I meant as a reference (side note: the ring we made is not meat).
Jil's knowledge and passion for her work is completely outstanding. As she explained, the process starts with selecting stones. We both allowed this to take the time that it needed. Jil is well-versed, connected and well-liked in her community. She has access to the whole country... continent? world? 's pickings of stones. She's basically Thanos. She would say to me "D, I'm going to Vermont next week, might come back with a delicious chocolate diamond for us, stay tuned". Umm okay, easy Lil' Wayne. But it was worth it. And forget just having access to stones - we synced up in our quest for the right ones. I simply couldn't pull a trigger on a stone until I could tell that Jil was as excited to make the ring as my fiance would be to receive it.
I feel like this is a good time to sidebar and tell you that it also didn't need to be as complicated as this. If you're the type that just wants to walk in and point at a ring and then buy it - Jil's selection at Made You Look is dope for that too.
Okay but if you ARE a nerd for sentiment, can I tell you about "the stories"? I'm a filmmaker. So I went in with the obscure idea of telling "3 stories" on the ring. No, I'm not pretentious, YOU'RE pretentious. The idea actually came from seeing Jil's previous work at Made You Look. Her unique style allows for 3 'looks' on one ring. You heard me. It's insane and you should stop reading this right now and go to her instagram @maddinjewellery and look at all of them and then never come back to reading this because you get lost scrolling back in her profile forever. No one will judge you.
I have deeply personal reasons of what I wanted as my "3 stories". My reasons will bore you. What you need to know is that Jil took my vision and expressed it in ring form. She did 3 champagne diamond baguettes on one side, a brilliant white sapphire in the middle and a chocolate diamond on the other side, book-ended by 2 small colourless diamonds. All embedded elegantly into 2 golds melted together: gold from my mother, and gold from my fiance's mother. She even sourced the best Toronto engraver and etched a design in the band. The design is an exact replica of one of my fiance's grandmother's bangles. I KNOW! Kleenex much?!
A brilliant artist, my jewelry muse, Jil listened to my story and told it in her medium.
So in conclusion, The Internet...
Maybe you're googling or reading reviews because there's a lovely person that you want to spend the rest of your life with. And you want to show them that by giving them a piece of jewelry that they'll wear forever. F-O-R-E-V-E-R. It's literally all of the rest of the time you and this person will have together. So good job reading up on where to get a ring and getting this far in my review. Start forever off on a good note. Go to Made You Look and get Jil Maddin to write the "once upon a time" in your story.