David Yurman's new jewellery for autumn and winter continues the legacy of collections, old and new. The New York brand has always been synonymous with sculptural forms, his famous Cable bracelet the standard bearer for Yurman's style, with its instantly recognisable double-helix design. This autumn and winter brings a raft of new pieces, not just for the Cable collection but for many others too, each of which displays a different layer of this American brand's unique style.
When I say sculptural in relation to pieces like these, it's a more-than-apt phrase: Yurman began his creative life as a sculptor from an early age. He initially apprenticed under Jacques Lipshitz and Picasso and Modigliani collaborator Theodore Rozack. From NYU to California and back to Greenwich Village, Yurman's formative years in the 1960s - and the decades since - have imprinted themselves on his jewellery. The distinct bold forms make them wearable little works of art.
This season's Sculpted Cable collection sees rings and cuffs in yellow gold adorned with sumptuous aquamarines and tourmalines, an ideal match for the smooth gold finish surrounding them. Gold finds an altogether more textured finish in the Curb Chain collection necklace, hand-hammered and finished with the warm glow of cognac diamonds. Contrasts are used expertly throughout the collections, with darkened silver brushing up against white and yellow golds. The DY® Collection sees mysterious black lava in soft pebble shapes, set off by that trademark twisted cable clasp. Similarly, the Chiclet Collection mixes deep blacks and bright gold to impressive effect: the four-row bracelet combines darkened silver, yellow gold and dynamite black diamonds.
There is an almost chameleon-like feel to the collections when considered as a whole. If you look at these pieces together they all bear their own individual motifs and yet they are all clearly the work of the same brand. Every shape, be it the mellifluous mother-of-pearl finishes of the Moonlight Ice collection or the twists and turns of the Labyrinth collection, bears an organic authenticity. There is rhythm. There is flow. And, every now and again, there are vibrant bursts of colour. The Pave´ Gemstone collection is alive with a mix of carefully set colour-change garnets, purple sapphires, cognac diamonds, demantoid garnets and pink spinels. Even the Cable Classic collection gets to share in this little colour explosion, with sterling-silver bracelets set with lapis, amethyst, pave´ diamonds and tsavorites.
This New York brand flies its colours so proudly and his talented family who work alongside him, David Yurman has quite literally sculpted a heritage of his own.
