CP: What inspired your classic cable design?
DY: The interesting thing is that I am inspired by classics. My background, as a sculptor, is in classical sculpture. It wasn’t conceptual, it wasn’t angry, it was a portrayal of an interpretation of an attitude of a concept of my point of view. Searching for truth in art, is what it was. And what it still is. It just happened to be that you can wear it. So the nature of the sculptural journey is a journey in art, which is to discover your truth. The cable- I actually have this bracelet and I wear it all the time. This is actually 1976, 1980- it’s simple wires, greek articulated little dots. It’s a mixture of gold and silver.
CP: Do you wear that every day?
DY: Every day.
CP: Do you wear your rings every day too?
DY: This other one I made a little smaller because my skin was dying under it, it was very big. I wear this every day. This I found- I usually wear a ring on my right hand- and I change, I’ll wear this for a year or two, then I’ll change. This is probably ‘89? 1989. I found it in a drawer someday. It was probably 1989 when I made this, but it didn’t go. It wasn’t accepted in the world of men’s jewelry. We didn’t sell enough.
CP: I bet you would now! You work with your son Evan now, tell me about him.
DY: He is a young aficionado- he’s very authentic in what he does- he collects and rebuilds muscle cars, he collects cognac and fine wines, he collects gems, he’s a collector of antiquities and Japanese, Asian art. He buys fine art- serious art. He’s young- he runs and is the director of men’s [jewelry], he’s the director of the watch division, bridal and couture. He’s responsible for the design, manufacturing and the P&L. Which means: Do you make money? Or do you not?
CP: So do you work with him on that? Does he show you what he does? Do you approve it?
DY: The couture, which is super high-end, it starts at $25,000. Only if he wants to show me- you can lead a horse to water. He has enough knowledge, more knowledge than I have in his selection of the high-end stuff- to show me some of the purchases. He has a checkbook and is very knowledgeable of the stones. I would venture to say he’s in the top ten of artisan jewelers making fine fine jewelry. Already. And he’s only been doing this four or five years. He has another five years to become a master, but he’s up there. As far as choosing the great value of great stone of knowing what that stone is from a spessartite garnet to a spinel to a mint tourmaline from Madagascar- he can look at a stone and say “This is from Sri Lanka. This is from Brazil. This is a Paraiba, this is not Paraiba. This looks like Paraiba but it doesn’t have the chrome in it. It’s close...” He really knows his stones. He is an aficionado and he is a talent.
CP: Did he learn all of this from you?
DY: Yeah. Everything. There was nothing he learned on his own. No I’m just kidding. What he has done- he’s been around it his whole life. A normal young man rejecting what his parents do to strike out on his own and he did. And he’s back and he didn’t go too far for too long. [I think he thought] “I’d be out of my mind not to take what you have built and to grow it. My name is Yurman.”
He’s a right/left brain- he runs the P&L on his business and understands it. [He can evaluate, for instance] “This is two years, and it hasn’t made a profit and it’s come a long way- this is the third year, and it did make a profit. and this is what works and this is what doesn’t work. This is where I want to go.” He’s a delight for us- it’s difficult for him to work for his parents.
CP: Is it difficult for you to let some of that go?
DY: Not for me. No. I mean, to a certain extent it’s like “you bought an $80,000 stone? You bought a $250,000 WHAT?” He’s like “Don’t worry dad, I got it sold.” So he’s not out of control. The areas he’s taken over I implore, and I’m so happy because I didn’t want to work more with the watch- it’s a different discipline, it’s more exact. You deal with the Swiss- very exacting, I didn’t have the patience.
CP: It sounds like a bit of a disconnect from the rest of your company.
DY: It is. You could say “I sell vehicles.” What do you sell? “Winnebagos.” Well, I sell jet planes. How much do they have in common?
CP: Not a lot.
DY: They don’t, but he’s learned in the business. He spent two years apprenticing every day. So he’s grown, we’re very proud of him.
CP: You’ve also expanded into fragrance and sunglasses.
DY: Fragrances are going into our third year. But it was a difficult launch because it was in the economic tsunami for us. For everyone. And it’s done very respectably. Through it’s launch year it’s been number 1, number 2, number 3 at Neiman Marcus, Saks, Bloomingdales where we’re selling it.
CP: The bottle’s just beautiful.
DY: The bottle- well it’s so unique. The juice is particularly mature. Very deep. Complex. It’s very expensive to make- it’s a tuberose, it’s called tuberose otto, which is a particular rose from Bulgaria. It’s a wet rose, it’s not a dry rose, there’s a very specific time the essence has to come out [of the rose]. It’s much longer lasting. I learned a lot about this fragrance. It took one year to get the fragrance right. One year, from the time we took the first sniff.
