Miladay at 60: Miladay is forever
Miladay is all about the values that make an heirloom endure: family ties, workmanship and the value its owners lovingly give it.
“Reaching 60 years is incredibly humbling,” said its president Michelle Dayrit-Soliven at Miladay’s recent “Heart and Heritage” anniversary celebration at the Peninsula Manila. In attendance were three generations of the Dayrit family (after their parents) and extended family. I surely felt like one of the latter, as the Dayrit girls went to the Assumption Convent like my sisters and I did. Michelle was my batchmate while Yvonne (Romualdez) was my student.
“Very few family businesses have the privilege of celebrating six decades, and we never take that for granted. But to me, this milestone isn’t simply about longevity. Just as my sister Yvonne said, it’s about gratitude.”
Michelle, thus, expressed gratitude to her late parents, the former Mila Salgado and Ting Dayrit, “for daring to dream,” and to Miladay employees “for walking beside us.” She thanked customers for trusting Miladay across generations, and her family “for continuing to choose one another.”
“That, to me, is the true legacy of Miladay,” Michelle said.
Mila and Ting’s only son Mark, who heads the Miladay Production House, recalled, “Our mother founded Miladay Jewels 60 years ago, when she was only 29 years old. She passed away at the age of 59, but in the 30 years between those two milestones, she created something that would endure far beyond her lifetime. She did not simply establish a jewelry business. She gave our family a name, a purpose, and a legacy.”
He recalled sentimentally, “The Miladay Production House had the humblest of beginnings—in the garage of our family home in Makati. My parents would travel to a small barrio in Meycauayan, Bulacan, where almost every household had someone involved in the art of jewelry-making: a goldsmith or platero, a polisher, an engraver or a stone-setter.”
“My mother was originally a piano teacher,” shared Mark. “Many of her pupils came from families living in Forbes Park. With her natural creativity, passion, charm, and gift for salesmanship, she worked with the craftsmen of Bulacan to create beautiful jewelry pieces, which she then presented and sold to the families she had come to know. In the beginning, music was her career and jewelry was her hobby. Eventually, jewelry became her career—and music became her hobby. That was the beginning of Miladay.”
After the first 30 years, Miladay was entrusted to the second generation—to Mila’s children Jacqueline, Michelle, Mark, Christine, and Yvonne.
The 60th anniversary, Mark said, marked the turnover of Miladay’s next 30 years to the third generation.
“And gathered here with us are members of the fourth generation, who, in time, will be called upon to carry this legacy through the 30 years that follow,” he added proudly.
Addressing the third generation, Yvonne, the CEO, said, “We are so, so proud and grateful for all of you, and I speak on behalf of us, the second generation. We always believed that everything starts with a prayer and that you, our third generation, are our answered prayer. And tonight, seeing everything you have created, we are reminded how blessed we are.
“The love, hard work, and dedication you have poured into Miladay is a gift to our family, to our team, to our clients—and to the generations who will come after us. We know that in your hands, Miladay will last another 60 years, and beyond.”
Yvonne gave a loving shoutout to the third generation (led by Samantha Dayrit and Carin Romualdez) for putting the event together and making sure the Miladay book (A Legacy of Trust) was unveiled that day, “as a gift to our family and to our founder and mother, Mila Salgado Dayrit, on the eve of her 89th birthday, if she were still around.”
In closing, Michelle invited guests to visit Miladay.
“You’re always welcome at the House of Miladay, where our team can work with you to breathe new life into your treasured heirlooms. Whatever you imagine, we’d be honored to create,” she said.
With faith and family as its brightest gems, Miladay is forever.
