In Store

Visiting two islands of shimmer on opposite sides of Factoria Boulevard.

Dacels Jewelry has been part of Eastside retail for thirty years. The family-owned shop is quietly upscale; the staff is clearly proud of its high-end gemstones, jewelry and collectibles. The word “Dacels” combines the first names of co-owners David and Celeste Michael; one of their sons, Ryan, is also a partner in the business.

Ryan Michael talks about the personal service Dacels gives customers versus the “cookie-cutter” factor in other stores’ wedding, engagement and anniversary rings. “With some jewelers, like Cartier, you have to take what they have in the case,” says Michael. “We like to do more. One of my very favorite things about my job is watching a ring evolve from a drawing to a wax-cast model into a real ring,” he says of Dacels' custom work.

Photo by Charlie Clay

Prices vary from $77.89 for a pair of pearl and diamond earrings, to $28,950 for a sapphire dinner ring. Michael talks about the uncanny way people can fall in love with a piece of new jewelry and the color of a metal itself — platinum, gold, rose gold, white gold.

In addition to a small gallery of Baccarat and Waterford crystal, Dacels also has an array of collectible porcelain figures made by the Spanish ornamental sculpture house Lladro — the sort of collectibles that Italian grandmothers may still hoard, but that seem like relics in many ways. “We still sell Lladro pieces,” says Dacels sales associate Emmy Schanberg. “But the interest in certain collections definitely ebbs and flows.”

Another longtime employee spoke more bluntly: “I don’t know if the younger generation has any interest in [the Lladro pieces] whatsoever!”

No matter — the pieces sit on Dacels' shelves like curious ciphers, glossy, ghostly little characters, hand-painted in creamy pastels. While contemporary small-sculpture designers tend to focus on art glass and abstract designs, the Lladro figures, with their large, dewy eyes, are a reminder of the past. The little sleeping lion and lamb, ballerinas, angels, Pekingese dogs on tuffets, nurses reading thermometers, basketball players striving for shots, nuns, bunnies and snowmen hold their painted stares across the Dacels showroom, out toward Factoria Boulevard.

Across the Boulevard, inside Factoria Mall, there is a “collectibles” store of an entirely different species. Claire’s Accessories, also thirty years old, originally began as a series of wig shops in the Midwest. As wigs became a less popular way to accessorize, the company began selling low-priced trinkets; now Claire’s is an international mall chain.

A Smash Mouth song pounds through the store’s speakers, echoing the pop nature of Claire’s merchandise. Most of it is under ten dollars — fake black onyx rings for $7.50, earrings with gold hearts and fake diamonds for $6.00, a set of bangles for $7.50. There are busy displays of tiny earrings: skulls, zipper grips, blank-eyed smiley faces. The merchandise’s intensely saturated blues, greens, oranges and yellows almost seem to excrete some kind of pheromone. Customers are drawn in; Claire’s is like an ice-cream sundae with gummy bears inside.

With a few tired mothers lingering at the sidelines, girls sort through the stock. A red-haired girl makes her little sister try on huge sunglasses; the two laugh. “Wait, wait, wait,” says the girl, sensing her mother’s impatience.

The Claire’s concept is about “constant newness,” and product designs are as up-to-the-moment as possible, although in general stores like this are about a year behind street fashion. But on the September days just before school begins, that doesn’t seem to matter. Fingerless gloves, star-shaped calculators, phone cases, “Bubblistrawvanilla” stick perfume, fake military pins, white glitter for eyes — all such items look so luscious that the teen shoppers fall in love with them.

Canvas bags, hanging in rows, are striped, fringy and cute. Some have slogans: “Live, Love, Laugh,” or, indistinguishably, “Love, Hope, Dream.”

Dacel’s

3500 Factoria Blvd. SE
Bellevue, WA 98006
425.643.2610

Claire’s

4035 Factoria Square Mall SE
Bellevue, WA 98006
425.747.4942