Q & A

What is your background in jewelry?

I'm actually second generation. I've worked in jewelry my whole life and started off by importing jewelry from Italy. We.ve been creating our own designs for more than 18 years.

Were you influenced by anyone other than your parents?

I have always respected people that devote their lives to jewelry. I'd say in our entire industry, or the second half of the 20th Century was influenced by Harry Winston, and now the man of the new millennium is Graff.

Who is the ideal client you design for?

A "stock" answer would be the "savvy and sophisticated woman," but we try not to anticipate our customer. More often than not, someone interested in our designs already has a nice wardrobe of jewelry and eventually decides they want to start collecting our pieces. And their basis for collecting is not for investment purposes but because ours are classic designs that can stand the test of time. Our legacy may be found far in the future when our designs are sought out at the auction houses.

Do you have a design "process?"

I'd like to say we "work to our muse," but here is the reality: we are trying to make something original on a one-inch square space that's been done for thousands of years. Our "process" is bringing together a lot of talented artisans and designers, including Victor Cabanas, and letting them use their skills to execute some broad concepts I'm able to pull from my mind's eye. We create more than 500 pieces a year, and, while we're by no means pristine, we occasionally get it right. and when that happens, it's beautiful!

What inspires your jewelry designs?

The stones. We only work in platinum and 18k, but metal is metal and the stones are the medium, the essential core of every piece we produce. That's why we have gravitated towards fancy colored diamonds and distinctively opulent stones, like rubellite, for our collections and away from white diamonds, a stone that has become quite a "commodity" in the industry recently. It's easy to design something expensive, but it's more appealing to us to make beautiful jewelry that "sings" for its value.

How would you define your collections?

Well, they don't fit into any one box. What we do is more like a pumpkin vine that sprawls across different categories. I think that's because we're always willing to adapt to the fluidity of the industry. For instance, when we saw that pink diamonds were underused, we brought fabulous pink diamond collections to market; then the market caught up with us, so we backed off; now there has been a market "correction" and we're stepping back in. We are more likely to be in front of a trend and through it before the trend has peaked.

What's important in the jewelry industry now?

It seems that many companies are building their "brands" and getting caught up in the peripheral areas of business, so much so that running the company becomes a distraction to designing jewelry and sometimes the box becomes more important that what it holds. It's important to stay in tune with the jewelry. Also, I actually think that one of the most important tools in the jewelry business is the calculator. The cost of the piece matters. pricing matters. the value of the jewelry matters, especially as it passes through generations. Ultimately, the one thing that matters most is this: enjoy what you do!