Apricot’s Home is a blog by Mir Martz (Harvard MBA ’14), the former E-Commerce Director of ShopBAZAAR, the content-to-commerce marketplace for Harper’s BAZAAR magazine. After 8 years in the fashion and beauty industries in New York City, I moved to a quieter, waterfront neighbourhood in Connecticut and adopted an adorable cavachon named Apricot.

In my career marketing luxury brands, I often met women who had just one $5,000 handbag in their closet and men who had just one piece of Gustavian furniture in their home. I also met many, many millionaires who rented rather than owning their homes. What I learned from these women and men was that they often had strict views on how they valued their lifestyle purchases that made them just as likely to buy an IKEA bookcase as an antique console. This blog was inspired by these women and men, and the thoughtful choices in their lives that they intersperse with moments of lavish opulence.

As a devotee to charitable endeavours in historic preservation and education, I hope to encourage other young people to explore ways to authentically incorporate antiques and family stories into their homes.

I am a member of the New York City Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New York, and the Descendants of Founders of New Jersey, and as well as a supporter of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York in their efforts to preserve Fraunces Tavern. Locally, I serve as the Chair of the Communications and Education Committee of the Stamford Land Conservation Trust. I am delighted to say that I have also joined the board of the Descendants of Founders of New Jersey as the Information Technology Chair.

The origins of my name

One of the surprising questions I get asked most frequently is where my name, Miriam Martz, comes from. “Mir” is a nickname for “Miriam”, which is a biblical name from the Old Testament. “Martz” is an Anglicization of the German Catholic name “Merz”, which is a centuries-old spelling for the month of March. I grew up in Southeast Michigan, where names like mine were traditional in the 19th century, and are perhaps a bit old-fashioned today.

Fun fact: In the early days of Michigan, German-language newspapers were normal. If you were to read an old newspaper today, you would need some help deciphering the Old German!