The beginning of the Meredith Wendell story has the markings of a movie starring Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, or both. “We met at an Upper East Side Christmas party—we were the schlub friends who were smoking in the kitchen. Then I kept seeing him on the street and would think, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s that cute guy that I liked,” Meredith German says. “She lived on 55th Street and worked at Saks Fifth Avenue in the windows; I worked at Playboy on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue. I got out of the subway at 53rd and Fifth,” her now-husband and business partner Wendell German explains. “One day, I finally stopped him on the street, and we got engaged a year later, on that same day—at this Marriott Marquis, because my grandparents were staying there. It was very romantic,” Meredith adds.

They soon realized they worked well together on many levels. Meredith was hitting her stride with her design career—having put in a good chunk of time doing accessories for Marc Jacobs—and Wendell had a strong sense of branding and aesthetics. The couple decided it was time to start their own line. Their earliest collections featured bags and belts with custom, swirled glass, produced for them in Indiana. According to Meredith, “They would make it almost in the same way you would make fudge.” But they have since shifted their attentions to mixed leathers and exotic skins in gumdrop hues. The glass, while stunning, was fragile and tremendously difficult to work with. “It was causing marital problems,” says Meredith.

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