Jewelry Maker Hopes Old Look Stays In : 1928: Melvyn Bernie started the company in his garage and built it into one of the country’s three largest costume jewelry firms.

Melvyn Bernie was a 23-year-old watch salesman in 1968 when he started a costume jewelry company in his garage. By day, he sold timepieces; by night he retired to the back of his Van Nuys home and crafted costume jewelry. He used a few thousand dollars of his watch commissions to buy tools and parts, and began hawking his wares to department stores such as May Co. and retail chains such as Judy’s and Contempo Casuals.

Bernie said his motivation in those days was “not to starve.” Today, at age 45, starving must be last on the list of Bernie’s concerns. His Burbank-based company, 1928 Jewelry Co., takes in more than $100 million a year in sales and is one of the three largest costume jewelry concerns in the country.

The company has a 50,000-square-foot plant, where, depending on the season, between 1,000 and 1,500 workers design, mold, plate and glue about 3,000 different types of jewelry pieces. The plant is the largest in-house costume jewelry manufacturing operation in the world, Bernie says. Meanwhile, Bernie has also moved up in his living accommodations: He now has an oceanfront Malibu home.

The company has made its mark by producing jewelry fashioned after antiques. Its earrings, pins, necklaces and bracelets--most of them costing under $50, although prices run from $5 to $300--are all new and are made with gold and silver plating, but they have the look of estate jewelry that might have been worn at the turn of the century.

The company’s jewelry, 80% of which is sold in major department stores such as Macy’s, the Broadway, Robinson’s and Buffums, has proved popular among women of all ages. “The customer it attracts is very mainstream, from the young customer who wants an antique look to the grandmother who wants some costume jewelry to wear with old pieces,” said Jim Litwak, senior vice president of Macy’s California.

The firm’s designers scour antique shops in New York and flea markets in London and Paris, looking for ideas. An antique brooch, for example, might be the inspiration for a line of earrings, pins and pendants.

Even the company’s name, 1928, harks back to another era. Bernie decided on the name when he saw a magazine article that referred to 1928 as “the year of opulence.”

Bernie, who wore little jewelry during a recent interview, says 1928 is profitable, has little debt and is adding 20,000 square feet to its existing facilities with the purchase of a building nearby. Bernie, who is the sole owner of the company, says his five-year goal is to double sales to $200 million a year.

But after 22 years of steady growth for 1928, it’s hard not to wonder where more growth is going to come from.

After all, other large costume jewelry manufacturers, such as Monet and Trifari, which are owned by Southport, Conn.-based Crystal Brands Inc., are still tough competition for 1928 in the department stores. According to various industry sources, Crystal Brands and New York-based Avon Products Inc., which remains highly successful with its method of selling jewelry--along with makeup--using a direct sales force that goes straight to customers’ homes, vie for the distinction of being the biggest seller of costume jewelry in the world.

“It’s extremely competitive and there’s a terrific fight for the consumer dollar,” said Steffan Aletti, president of the Jewelry Industry Council, a New York-based trade group. “You can’t grow unless it’s at someone else’s expense,” he said.

According to John Harris, a Commerce Department consumer goods economist, sales by American costume jewelry manufacturers totaled $1.3 billion last year, up from $1.2 billion in 1988. But low-cost imports, which accounted for $530 million in sales in 1989, are growing faster, Harris said, at a time when the market is likely headed for a slow period.

“The best we could hope for during the next couple of years is for things to be flat. If we have a recession, you could expect a downturn,” said Harris.

Meanwhile, 1928 also has to worry about fickle fashion trends. Mock vintage jewelry might be popular now, but will women continue to covet that look when clothing styles change?

“Styles can change so radically from one year to the next,” said Helen Malavenda, a spokeswoman for Napier Co., a large costume jewelry manufacturer based in Meriden, Conn. “I think that any company that specializes in just one thing could be in danger of doing themselves in.”

David Alverson, 1928’s vice president of product development, says the company rotates designs constantly, although there are certain “basics” that stay in demand year after year. “Antiques never go out of style,” he said.

Yet 1928 has obviously heard the diversification arguments. The company has already started a line of designer jewelry, called Alex Nicole, that uses semi-precious stones such as rose quartz and onyx. Alex Nicole jewelry costs as much as $300.

It has also introduced lines of fancy hair clips and children’s jewelry, men’s pieces such as tie bars and cuff links, and a new line of polished jewelry--the smooth, geometric-shaped gold- and silver-plated pieces often worn by businesswomen--that competes with the sleek, contemporary looks favored by Monet and Trifari.

The company is also planning to start offering its own men’s cologne as a giveaway with jewelry purchases. And it’s hoping to expand its foreign sales from the current 5% to 40% of its total sales by increasingly marketing its products abroad.

Despite his success, Bernie remains a shy, soft-spoken man. He refused to have his picture taken for this article and preferred to let his top executives do most of the talking for him. His reticence, however, hasn’t stopped him from earning a reputation for aggressiveness and innovativeness.

For one thing, 1928 is 3,000 miles from Providence, R.I.,which has been the center of the costume jewelry trade since European silversmiths began settling there in the 18th Century. And Bernie prefers to do everything in-house--instead of farming out certain work to specialized jewelry shops as many other manufacturers do--so that he can maintain control over every aspect of production.

Bernie also shook up the industry by taking a different approach to selling his jewelry. Rather than just filling orders and letting retailers do all the sales work, 1928 was the instigator of what is now an industrywide trend of in-store promotions, such as jewelry demonstrations and using video cameras to show customers what they look like with an ensemble of 1928 jewelry.

“The jewelry industry was asleep for some time,” Bernie said. “I think we helped wake it up.”

Others agree. “What they ended up doing was commanding real estate in the stores,” said Jerry Madison, owner of Jerry Madison Jewelry in Los Angeles, a manufacturer of precious metal jewelry. “To me, that was brilliant,” he said.

Litwak of Macy’s said 1928’s promotions have included dressing models in body stockings, loading them up with pins and sending them around to talk to customers. The company has also set up demonstrations showing how it makes the porcelain roses used in many of its pieces and gives clinics on what type of jewelry suits different facial shapes.

These promotions work well, Litwak said. “It stops people dead in their tracks.”

Litwak said 1928 has “had explosive growth” during the past five years and, so far, the company has been able to modify its look to keep pace with changing fashions.

“Now the question is, can they keep doing it,” Litwak said. “If I were to bet, I’d bet yes.”