Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVAN SUNG (SKETCH) "One of the things I'm trying to do lately is stay out of the way of the stones."—DAVID YURMAN Tucson in February and Basel in April are requisite stops on his gemstone circuit. "I can't One-of-a-kind wait until February 1 comes around, so my Linked Stone son, Evan, and I can jump on a plane and necklace features chocolate and spend the week in Tucson, up early every peach moonstones, morning to talk to dealers and see Madeira citrine, morganite, and what's new." (Yurman's business indeed orange and pink remains a family affair, as he shares an sapphires. office and partners' desk with Sybil, his wife of 33 years, while the 31-year-old Evan, design director of the men's and timepiece collections, "was correcting my sketches when he was 12 years old.") For the Spring collection that just arrived in stores— locally at his Forum Shops boutique—Yurman is indeed exploring new directions, making bolder statements, largely through his use of color. "I liked the idea of mixing and matching colors that perhaps you don't often see together, that might feel a bit odd, and yet the result is warm and refreshing," he says. "I took tones like citrus/lemony colors and mixed them with soft browns, or peachy colors with orange-reds. I wanted to be adventurous with color, to combine muted with bright or ombre tones with an accent of something else. It seems bizarrely simple, and yet the results have been so successful." Las Vegas will be key for the collection, Yurman says, not only because the city ranks among his best markets, but also because its shoppers love color. Such thoughts are top-of-mind as the designer notes he'll place one-of-a-kind pieces from Spring exclusively in his Forum Shops boutique. "Bold jewelry sells in Las Vegas," he says. "It's a client who's seeking really unique pieces. You can't just fill up the cases with the pieces they can find everywhere. The people in our stores love to be able to say, 'This is a limited edition,' or 'You won't find this anywhere else.'" In other words, Yurman knows, not unlike that unfinished stone, he must romance the client a little, as well. Ask Yurman to name his favorite pieces from spring, and he doesn't hesitate: his Cable Wrap grouping, in which stones of different hues are wrapped in his now-iconic cable wire, as well as new shapes, such as teardrops and elongated ovals, that he's mixed into his designs. But it's color that Yurman says is key, a notable thought given that often-unconventional mixes of colors Yurman's boutique at The Forum Shops at Caesars. Yurman keeps stones of different sizes, textures, and hues on his design table for inspiration. Yurman's Spring ad campaign features Gisele Bündchen. and prints have dominated ready-to-wear trends in recent seasons, yet it's undeniably forward-thinking to apply the concept to anything that falls into an investment category like fine jewelry. "But I don't see them as investment pieces—it's not like a 12-carat Citrine and diamond you'd keep in a bank vault," Yurman lemon citrine earrings from says. "There is an emotional investment in our Yurman's pieces, and color is often the emotion of a collecSpring collection. tion. It really sets the tone for the piece, especially when you're dealing with combinations of colors, because they create a tension or they could be sympathetic, and then you're dealing with opacities or cabochons or facets, each of which has an impact on color. One of the things I'm trying to do lately is stay out of the way of the stones and really allow them to be the star." If you've ever witnessed Yurman fans at one of his personal appearances, the frenzy created by devotees of those ubiquitous cable bracelets, you know he'll never be replaced as the true star of the equation. As he explains the concept behind another grouping in his Spring collection, the aptly titled Renaissance, it's clear Yurman relishes the adventures, stone searches and otherwise, that lie ahead. "I love taking a piece from the past and finding new ways to reinterpret it—we change the color, change some of the materials, or change the way it's constructed," he says. "By doing this, we're breathing new life into classics. And that sense of discovery, I'll never tire of it." The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-794-4545; davidyurman.com V VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 61 060-061_V_SS_StyleSetter_Win13.indd 61 1/2/13 1:49 PM