• Donna Distefano Ltd.

  37 W. 20th St., nr. Fifth Ave., Ste. 1106; 212-594-3757 (by appointment only)

  Whether your repair needs are relatively minor—a busted clasp, pearls that need restringing or tightening—or major, like a lost stone that needs to be replaced and matched to the rest of the piece, Donna Distefano is the woman to call. (Her clientele includes celebrities like Sheryl Crow and Alan Cumming.) Make an appointment, and she’ll set you straight about what’s worth fixing, junking—or, sometimes, reworking and streamlining into a modern piece. That scenario occasionally works out perfectly: Removed bits of precious metal go to Distefano’s gold refiner in Virginia and turn into a credit against your bill. “This way,” she explains, “repairs can sometimes almost pay for themselves.”

From the 2010 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine