Men’s jewellery is continuing to heat up.
On Tuesday, David Yurman announced the first high jewellery collection for men. The American jeweller has long been a trailblazer in men’s jewellery since it launched its line in 2004, long before others followed suit. Now it’s practically de rigueur for jewellers to carry a collection for the gents with increasingly more brands jumping on the bandwagon. Evan Yurman, son of David and the creative mastermind behind the company’s men’s collections and watches, says the launch of the collection had nothing to do with the fact that men are increasingly wearing jewellery both on the red carpet and in real life; he says it just made sense because he had been making these kind of pieces over the years.
“A lot of times, I would just put them in my vault,” he tells Robb Report. “People that know that they exist are always trying to get me to sell them, but they’re the highest form of creativity and expression. And so, I’ve recently decided to start offering them, that’s what this is. I’ve offered them one by one, and our collectors purchased them, and some of them multiple pieces. So, I just thought, this is the right time to kind of express that we have such traction in the business.”
At debut, the collection, called appropriately, The Vault, consists of 30 one-of-a-kind pieces ranging from platinum cufflinks set with 8.48 carats of tanzanite surrounded by diamonds to a super rare star inclusion diamond ring and a ruby adorned rose-gold chain bracelet or lagoon-coloured tourmaline from Namibia set in the “King of David” ring. The latter is Yurman’s favourite piece. “It sort of tells the story of King David and the lagoon tourmaline is from a part of Africa that is is thought to be the cradle of civilisation where the story would have come from.” Storytelling plays a big role in Yurman’s creative design process. He says that almost every piece is adorned with hand-engraving depicting some form of mythology, astrology, or historical references—similar themes are also explored in the company’s standard men’s collection, although not to intricacy and craftsmanship of The Vault pieces.
Tapped as the face of the collection is actor Michael B. Jordan, who has been one of the most influential stars wearing jewellery on and off the red carpet. He tells Robb Report that he hopes men’s jewellery can one day have the same collecting clout as cars and watches (and based on current trajectory, it certainly appears to be headed that way). “I’m always wearing jewellery—whether I’m at home or on the red carpet,” says Jordan. “Day to day, I’m typically wearing a chain and diamond stud earrings. On the carpet, I tend to experiment with bolder statement pieces, like the pieces in The Vault collection. My favourite from the collection has to be the Full Pavé Oval Link necklace in white diamonds.”
While celebrities like Jordan have largely kickstarted the trend, David Yurman is certainly the leader in taking the idea to the next level. We expect other big-name brands to follow in its footsteps imminently. In fact, one industry insider recently told us that another ultra marquee name has an internal goal of “selling more watches to women and more jewellery to men.” Stay tuned.
