David
YURMAN Celebrating the cable: David Yurman's iconic design is still going strong
by William Norwich "
W
hat we're doing is one long art project," David and Sybil Yurman will answer when asked the secret to their successful marriage and creative partnership.
This enduring relationship, enviable in itself, has created a living masterpiece: the Yurman brand.
She wore it every day. Amid the many compliments came even more requests for cable from friends, collectors, gallery owners and especially retailers. Sybil remembers, " A lot of what we did was informed by architecture." The spiraling twists of columns pointed to the strength and beauty of the cable form in nature and manmade constructions. Today, there are some 30 David Yurman collections with cable as the vehicle through all of them. Over the course of nearly 40 years, cable unites an artistic body of work. Throughout every David Yurman collection, cable is used in innovative and beautiful Ancient Roman columns © Alexander Mazurkevich, Shutterstock
David sits in the Yurman atelier at a long table in his outer office.
ways—as a contrast to smooth polished metal or by flattening its cylindrical shape so the cable becomes a relief and an experiment
It is a room filled with books, artwork, objects of inspiration and
in perspective. Cable is used as an accent, a bead, a setting, a
some of the earliest pieces of their jewelry. He is happiest in his stu-
clasp and carved in stone. As a subtle signature, it often appears
dio, perfecting new jewelry designs. "The work is in the future, not
on the inside of a ring or back of a pendant where only the wearer
the past," he says, but he readily reminisces about cable, discussing
will see it. David transforms cable into knots, referencing cable's
its universal connectivity, its origins in ancient art and architecture
connection to rope. When David mixes gold and silver, the striking
and of course, how it has forged "the river that runs through every-
combination of metals is united by cable.
thing we do at David Yurman."
"There's nothing I don't like about cable," David muses. "I feel
Cable was introduced in 1982 and immediately became the Yurmans' signature. Its first words were spoken as a bracelet with gemstone-studded finial caps that David designed for Sybil as a gift.
totally at home and embraced by the form. I know what it can do and what I can do with it." "The future," he says, smiling, "is wherever it takes me."
20 20 FRANK ADAMS MAGAZINE
