In 1968, a author for the Washington Publish dubbed Seaman Schepps “America’s courtroom jeweler.” Having based his atelier in 1904, the designer had been round for many years however had reached the top of identify recognition within the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, when Doris Duke, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Blanche Knopf, and different members of the fashionable elite have been noticed carrying Schepps’ whimsical designs. Andy Warhol was additionally a famous collector.
Lots of the jewels have been outlined by natural parts equivalent to seashells and wooden or heaps of candy-colored stones integrated into daring, sculptural silhouettes. Assume jumbo beaded necklaces, dimensional button earrings the scale of sea urchins, and exaggerated hyperlink bracelets looping lapis or incandescent blue chalcedony with polished gold.
Turbo Shell earrings in 18k gold with pearls, $4,350
Mousetrap bracelet in 18 gold with rubies and diamonds, value on request
The long-lasting items—these turbo shell earrings and mousetrap bracelet (each pictured above)—proceed to captivate jewellery collectors. However right this moment, Seaman Schepps joins fellow New York–based mostly heritage manufacturers together with Verdura and Tiffany & Co. on a mission to reinvigorate itself for a contemporary viewers.
An essential step in any such trajectory usually includes reimagining the in-store look and expertise, and earlier this summer time the model opened a brand new flagship at 824 Madison Ave. close to 69th Road.
Having closed the doorways in 2020 at its earlier location on Park Avenue and 58th Road—its residence for 60 years—as a result of challenges related to the pandemic, the opening of the brand new location heralds a contemporary begin.
The brand new, bi-level retailer was designed by Penny Drue Baird of Dessins LLC and homes basic items alongside new designs.
In its new digs, “America’s courtroom jeweler” will get a dose of French-inspired esprit, with a heat powder blue and beige colour palette that acts as a impartial backdrop for the colourful jewellery.
“It is important, as time passes, to go searching, be receptive to the instances, and to be open to modifications within the market and potential shoppers,” says Anthony Hopenhajm, who assumed possession of Seaman Schepps in 1992. “On the time we got here into the image, this grand dowager of a model was being shepherded by Seaman Schepps’ daughter and granddaughter. They not had their very own workshop.”
Hopenhajm and his enterprise associate had been the house owners of Trianon, a jeweler with its personal New York Metropolis workshop only a stone’s throw away from Seaman Schepps’ on Park Avenue. One of many first improvements Hopenhajm and his workforce launched was to start producing the Seaman Schepps line in 18k and 22k gold (in Schepps’ heyday, the usual in the USA was 14k, in response to Hopenhajm).
“We have been in a position decide up the baton by making Seaman Schepps items within the cutting-edge, progressive, and sudden mixtures that might solely be correctly completed when the jewellery is created in its personal in-house workshop,” he says.
Many years later, that baton is constant its journey—and has landed within the the uptowniest of uptown jewellery locations.
“I consider we’re aspirational as a model with shoppers keen to accumulate the basic hyperlink bracelets or shell earrings,” says Hopenhajm. “Our repute for producing fascinating, unique, and wearable jewels that maintain their worth within the secondary market is a part of the Seaman Schepps cachet. The convenience and wearability of the items rounds out their multigenerational enchantment.”
In the meantime, the brand new retailer will straddle the model’s previous and future with a contemporary, vaguely beachy magnificence. A spiral staircase, hand-painted in a fake metal and heat walnut end, results in the decrease degree, which homes unique design sketches and historic items. The decrease degree additionally serves as a non-public occasion area for intimate gatherings. The practically 50 toes of window shows will change seasonally and have unique watercolor backdrops by artist Diana Heimann and curated alternatives of jewels organized amid objects like stone, wooden, and shells.
The key to reinvigorating a heritage model, says Anthony Hopenhajm (pictured above), includes “being true to [its] core DNA and preserving your eyes and ears open to what’s occurring on the planet round you, whereas preserving an emphasis on robust historic designs equivalent to our iconic hyperlink bracelets.”
Antibes earrings in 18k gold with white topaz, $5,700
Basic medium hyperlink bracelet in 18k gold and wooden, $12,750
Giro earrings in 18k gold with in blue chalcedony and sapphires, $9,500
Wanting forward, Hopenhajm says the plan is to “uphold the values of the Seaman Schepps DNA whereas we proceed to develop new gadgets within the iconic Schepps type. Our new Boat Hyperlink bracelets and Giro and Antibes earrings, amongst many different items, are based mostly on our historic archives of over 5,000 jewellery renderings that return to the Twenties.
“The mounting of pure shell with treasured stones and the blending of treasured gold and wooden was not solely appreciated and desired seven many years in the past when the idea was first launched, however proceed to be vital for right this moment’s technology.”
