Michele Billam’s entire career has centered around retail merchandising, with the past 15 years focused on jewelry. The Topeka native started with Helzberg Diamonds in Kansas City. Then she moved to Dallas, Texas, to join Signet Jewelers, who own the Kay, Zales, and Jared jewelry brands. Her final move was to Miami and a job with a division of Louis Vuitton, placing jewelry and luxury items in cruise ship shops.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Billam says, “I was spending a lot of time managing teams on Zoom, and there was a lot of Zoom fatigue. It gave me a chance to look at my life and say, okay, is this really what I want to be doing? Do I want to be in Miami, which is gorgeous and an easy place to live, but where we are far from family and friends? It was time to move home, but I was not going to give up jewelry. I love jewelry. It was an opportunity to hit a reset button.”
Billam, a Shawnee Heights High School and Washburn University graduate, was attracted to the energy and revitalization of Downtown Topeka. She opened MB Addis & Co. in a newly refurbished 1913 building across from the Cyrus Hotel, featuring a different shopping environment from the competition.
The atmosphere is upscale, open, airy, and bright. Coffee or wine is offered to customers for their enjoyment while they shop. Perhaps most important, the store offers a unique assortment of pieces curated worldwide. Billam has access to world-renowned designers thanks to her international market travel during her corporate years. She maintained relationships with business associates and companies certified to have sustainable and ethical sourcing practices in place.
She notes, “A couple of the collections we have in the store, I was the only one in the U.S. to have them when they came out, and now there may be 10 other retailers with them. I’m getting ready to launch a collection close to Valentine’s Day, where I’m one of only 50 stores for the next year to receive products. So, my relationships and what I’m allowed to get access to and bring to Topeka sets me apart.”
However, if you’re budget-conscious, don’t let the luxury feel scare you. “We have sterling silver and diamonds starting at $65 in our store,” Billam says. “Just because we’ve provided an upscale luxury environment so that you can enjoy the shopping experience doesn’t mean you can’t afford to come in here regardless of your budget or occasion.”
Billam and her staff know how to help customers find the perfect piece, whether for them or as a gift for someone else. The team goes through a series of questions: Does the recipient like white or yellow metals? Gemstones or diamonds? What does she wear every day? What are her interests?
“But at the end of the day, most people love a piece of jewelry no matter who gave it to them,” says Billam. “One of the reasons I love jewelry is because every piece of jewelry in your jewelry box has a memory tied to it. Sometimes it’s a sad memory, a reflective memory, a happy occasion. Whatever it is, it’s very sentimental to you. You know when you got it, who you received it from, and what the occasion was. I think that’s one of the beautiful things with jewelry.”
The MB in the store’s name is for Billam, while the Addis pays homage to Margaret Addis, who opened her first Topeka jewelry store in 1906. Addis was one of the few women jewelers and was known nationally for her business acumen.
An article in The Topeka Daily Capital published on February 27, 1909, states, “Miss Addis, of 817 Kansas Avenue, has demonstrated the fact the business of conducting a most up-to-date and reliable jewelry business is quite within a woman’s province, provided the woman is resourceful, intelligent, industrious and honest as to method and intention… Distinction in Jewelry is her motto. No woman in Kansas has been more successful in business and her store is destined for greater things in the business world.”
Billam says, “Margaret Addis commanded a lot of respect from a lot of traditional men in the industry, to the point where when she tried to retire from a board position, they wouldn’t let her. That’s what I hope to aspire to. To be that well known in the community. To be that well-loved, but then also to be important to the industry.”
MB Addis & Co. is at 923 S. Kansas Ave. For store hours and to browse some of the collections, visit mbaddis.com.