My Date With David Yurman: Part Two
Well, I can now say that I’ve tucked into a U-shaped booth and had a long one-on-one chat with David Yurman. And yes, he was great. Personable, chatty, smart, down-to-earth, funny. Read on to get his take on inspiration, marriage, good citizenship, communication and, of course, mahvelous jewelry, dahling.
On The David and Sybil Yurman Humanitarian and Arts Foundation and Emil De John, Drexel fashion professor and past recipient of his humanitarian award :
We give awards to humanitarians who really give of their time — not just raising money, not that that’s a bad thing — but who also just have heart and soul, and Emil de John’s one. We gave it Steven Spielberg, Elton John, Cam Neely, and all kinds of great people. We gave [Emil de John] this award because he’s such a great teacher. He loves the young talent at Drexel. He’s just given so much of his time to teaching. It was the first time we gave an award to someone who wasn’t doing groundbreaking work as a doctor, wasn’t building a hospital — he just was one of the most loved teachers at Drexel. He asked me to talk at Drexel [to students in the fashion program]. That was two years ago, and I did. And then he asked if I would come and critique some work and just talk about how I design, what it’s like in the real world, and [answer] whatever questions the young students had. So we do that today.
On his school days:
I was a terrible student. I couldn’t even walk in a straight line. Just totally in trouble in the linear thinking of school. Then they said, “Well, you have to choose your sequence.” And I’m thinking, “Oh, we’re gonna do clothes! Great, my father’s in the garment section. I’ve got lots of sequins! I’ve got sequins, I’ve got grommets, I’ve got epaulets—I’ve got all kinds of things! I’m going to do great at this school!” I came home and I said, “Dad, I need all the sequins you can get ’cause they want me to choose sequins.” He said, “No, I don’t think they meant that, David. I think you have to choose whether you want to go into science or the arts…” I said, “I can’t choose that! I’m 14 years old! Why can’t I just go to school and hope not to fail?” So I’m successful in this because I’m failure at that.
On how he ‘gets’ his inspiration:
‘Get’ isn’t the right word. You can’t ‘get’ it. No one can get it. You can’t chase it, you can’t find it — it kind of visits you. So you’ve got to be welcome to the inspiration. So many great ideas, from what I understand, are just like, ‘Boom!’ Woke up from a sleep, and “That’s it!”
On creating a link between jewelry and fashion:
I design [fine jewelry] in a fashion mode, which wasn’t done 20 years ago. We started making the worlds of fashion and fine jewelry one world, to bridge that gap. For me, it was easy — in the fact that nothing worthwhile is easy. You have to work at it.
On building on the shoulders of giants:
Sybil will sometimes say, “ I think we need more iconic pieces.” Oh, well, great. So should I go to the Icon Store and put my name in? “I’d like to get some icons, please.” You can’t go to the store to get that. Iconic moments happen out of history. Your own history. And everyone — everyone — builds on the shoulders of giants. So all the jewelers that came before me, I’m just building on what they’ve put in front, on what’s on their shoulders. No one is that unique, with the exception of da Vinci. And you know what? He built on some shoulders, too.
On success:
If I get impressed with our success to think that it really means that I am fantastic: Bullshit. Not the thing. I’m doing my job, getting my stuff done. I work with seven bright, young design assistants, and I just try to stay as much as I can making that work and expressing what I need to express from my heart to their hearts, to their hands, to get it done.
On communication:
The hardest thing is the communication. You have to have clarity. And to have [the original concept] go down to the supervisor of jewels, and how does that jeweler translate carving, casting … someone needs to watch every single stage to see that it works. And that’s me. We’ve got lots of hands all over the world [making the jewelry. And you have to train all of them to see what’s your hand. So sometimes I have to go to the shop, sit on the bench and file, and I’ll say, “This is the shape I want. You got it? Now you make the shape. I’ll go to lunch, come back and see how it looks.” Then, “Aah … it’s good, but see? You didn’t finish this right …” until someone understands. It takes six months, a year sometimes, but when they get it, it’s like, “OK. Let’s go to work.” It takes a lot of training, much more than I ever thought.
On his signature cable detailing:
In the beginning, it was a real cable. It was really wires or tubes, and we twisted them, and worked out machinery that would twist, but [now] there are carvings that replicate the cable. There’s a formula to make a 3-D shape — very complex mathematical formulas that you have to implant in the DNA of the math of these [jewelry] drawings. It’s phenomenal how they do that. Very high-tech. I look at the computer drawings, I look at the blowouts of them, and I’d like to print them, they’re so beautiful. We’re definitely in the 21st generation.
On the origin of pieces:
[Sybil] said, “I’m tired of looking at my bracelets. They don’t tell time. Now I think you should make a watch.” OK, fine. We’ll make a watch. I had done drawings for watches, and they were all men’s watches. And then she said, “Oh, no, no, no. Women’s jewelry. Make this bracelet into a watch. It’s as simple as that.” We went to Switzerland, found a good shop, and worked together with them. Most of the time it’s an extension of a collection. I made a deco-style ring, very successful, just hit the ground. And now it’s like, “Oh, where’s the bracelet?” It gets blown out of its own life.
On Philadelphia jewelry style:
It’s amazing, the diversity of people in most metropolitan areas, but when it comes to luxury, demographics are pretty much the same. There’s probably more casual wear in this area. But every community has a pretty broad spectrum. I come down to do trunk shows, and I say, “Well, they like very conservative [jewelry].” And I bring the conservative pieces, and they’re looking at all these wild colored beads. It’s like, “Oh, how wrong am I?” So you really can’t pigeonhole communities.
On his involvement with breastcancer.org:
Every store we open, we choose one or two organizations having to do with healthcare or related to arts, and we say, “OK. Let’s work together.” I could tell you my sister died of breast cancer. I know two other people who have had breast cancer. I don’t think there is an organization that deals with health issues that is greater than another. They’re almost all valuable. [Breastcancer.org is] a great group. They’re really working to get things done, they’re committed, they’re concerned. This isn’t a research organization; this is an information organization. It’s a central location that gives people who are affected by breast cancer a way to make choices in their lives.
On giving back:
We’re in a fortunate situation where we have a brand and the responsibility of the brand is to our customers. Every man and woman in the neighborhood. And part of the responsibility is not only to make good product, but to be good citizens. And so we do our share.
On marriage:
Get to the point where you want to choke him, but don’t squeeze. ’Cause you’re gonna get there. If you’re not, then it means you’re living a lie. You have some kind of symbiotic relationship. List all your expectations, what you expect him to do. And he’ll list his. Just silly, stupid things. No big-picture stuff. It’s really compromise. Make a lot of compromises. I make more compromises than [Sybil] does. At least, I think so. [laughs] Yeah, I think I do. Actually, in the big picture, she probably compromises … probably equal. Let’s go equal. And who’s counting anyway? If you’re not into compromise, don’t get married. If it’s your way or the highway, you’re going to have a miserable trip. Just, you know, get over it. He snores, his feet smell — get over it! Who cares, you know? Find a solution.
On trends:
We’re really not a trend company. We’re in the flow of contemporary style, and if I see something trending, I’m a little leery about it. I just have a sense of “This is thin. This isn’t going to last.” And I’ve got to feel it. I’ve got to like it. A lot of our jewelry is somewhat masculine — I hate to use the word masculine — it’s just the size. It’s got a heft to it. It’s got a body to it, structure. And that’s because, between Sybil and I, between her taste and my sculptural background, it sort of balances out, and that’s how we make this jewelry that looks like us. You can say it looks like me; it really looks like us.
On keeping it in the family:
[Sybil is] president and CMO, chief marketing officer. I’m chairman and designer. And the role is, whatever she wants to do, she can do. I try to stay mostly on the design end, just live in the design world. Someone has to totally stay with the thread of design — and it’s a thread.
On when Philadelphia shoppers can see the new lines in David Yurman stores:
Now. Probably 200 new designs are in the market now. The Waverly watch is just delivering, it’s a sculpted cable watch, it’s flexible — it’s kind of a unique way of flexing — big, bold watch. New beaded collections are in the market. We reinvented our cable, which was always twisted material. We carved it, made it flatter.
On Starbucks:
You know, I’ve never had a Starbucks cappuccino. I get all those fancy drinks — frappamochacino, fluffy ice cream things. In fact, just give me the whipped cream!
On the American Dream:
You can live the American dream — come here with no money, figure out how you can put something together, do a lot of hard work, be smart, and … buy fancy David Yurman jewelry. Yes! [laughs]
Image, davidyurman.com
November 15th, 2007 at 7:36 am
David seems to be as amazing as his jewelry collection
November 15th, 2007 at 10:32 am
wow..It’s not every day that you come across a person living the celebrity lifestyle who also has such depth and awareness of the world around him/her. I’m very impressed! Great post!