What inspires a man to leave his career as a corporate lawyer and embark on an unfamiliar path as a small business wholesaler of an obscure product – jewelry quality blazer buttons?

So many hopeful reasons – certainly the desire to carry on the name of a person he loved dearly was high on the list. Then there was the chance that, if two salaries could be sustained, he could work with me, his wife, another unfulfilled lawyer.

He saw a chance at developing this small business into an expression of his own creativity and skills. Expressing creativity was infrequently possible in his law practice.

However, working at R.H. Macy & Co., as an in-house attorney, he found he enjoyed discovering the merchant’s role more than the legal work he performed. He enjoyed helping articulate the new concepts that would become the Macy’s basement area – restaurants and special services; and he worked with great joy on contracting with the Macy’s parade characters.

For years he had satisfied his need for artistic and creative work by pursuing a serious hobby in black and white portrait photography, studying with acknowledged giants in the world of portraiture, including Philippe Halsman. Bob’s darkroom was a place of meticulous process, and while he drew satisfaction from the creative act of shooting photos, and the pleasure of sitting with his subjects, his legal training supported precise detailed artisanry in the darkroom.

All these artistic skills and his legal background would come together with the creative spark that came from learning about manufacturing and selling, and the determination to produce only the finest quality.

Neither Mr. Prenner nor his wife, knew anything about the business in 1978.