Alessandra Sillo, 33 years old, Hamden’s jewelry queen
Owner of William’s Exchange on Whitney Ave.
“It is unimaginable how much stuff people accumulate over the course of time. They just have decades of stuff. So some of it I buy on-site and the other half people just come in with, literally pounds of jewelry. I do knickknacks, I have some toys, but I love jewelry especially Victorian jewelry. I got my degree in English, but I really like the Victorian period in literature. Everything was so lavish and embellished with flowers. It was such a beautiful time. I love that jewelry and unfortunately not everything you can buy is Victorian. So I buy it all. It’s like looking at a piece of history. I like recovering it and learning about it and I’m really lucky to have this opportunity. I’ve always done it as a hobby. I have to admit, it’s hard to sell the jewelry because I want to keep all of it, but I sell most of it. It’s so hard to sell antiques right now. People don’t buy them. I’ve been evolving to see what people like and what they don’t like.”