Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/410828
gold; all but one of the jewelry brands are made in the United States. "I actu- ally know almost every single jeweler personally," Barrish says. Art is also an important element of the store—Nehme is an artist by training and always wanted the business to support local painters and craftsmen. The shop represents more than 20 local artists, many of whom are teachers or students at nearby Montserrat College of Art. Nehme and Barrish will also do in-home consul- tations, allowing clients to see artwork in their own spaces before buying. For shoppers with a Yankee Swap to buy for, Mimi may be the perfect destina- tion: Every holiday season, Nehme and Barrish hunt down an extensive selection of gift options priced from $15 to $25. They have even been known to do deliver- ies for locals looking for a last-minute gift. "We like to rise to the challenge," says Nehme. "It's fun for us." affordable; for the first three years of its existence, nothing was priced higher than $50, and it is still easy to find a unique gift for under $30, Leavy says. This year she is also continuing her popular holiday shopping loyalty pro- gram: From Thanksgiving to Christmas, customers get credits worth 10 percent of what they spend to use toward pur- chases in January. Indeed, Leavy says, customers do keep coming back, even after their holi- day shopping is complete. "It definitely is a whirlwind, and it makes everyone happy," she says. Mimi 19 Central St., Manchester-by-the-Sea, 978-525-0385, mimigiftgallery.com Mimi in downtown Manchester-by-the- Sea is a tiny store with big ambitions. Mother-daughter co-owners Mia Nehme and Claudia Barrish stock their cozy shop with art, accessories, and jewelry selected not just for aesthetics and function but for their social and environ- mental impact as well. "There's a lot of consciousness behind our choices here," Nehme says. Many of the items on offer are made by companies that donate a portion of their proceeds to causes from conserva- tion to breast cancer prevention. Mimi also stocks the Cucina line of lotions and soaps made from sustainably sourced, natural ingredients. All of the gold jew- elry the store sells is made from recycled metal because of the environmental devastation caused by mining for new photographs by zoe isaac Retail ne 160 nshoremag.com December 2014 Taste Shapers Mia Nehme and Claudia Barrish of Mimi