NEW YORK — When jewelry designer Stephen Dweck celebrates his 25 years in business with guests tonight, he’ll be doing more than merely toasting the past.
Dweck also will be kicking off a new age for the firm, which has grown to generate $15 million to $20 million in volume and has attracted celebrity fans from Barbara Walters to Drew Barrymore.
Plans include growing the company’s range of diamond jewelry, exploring licensing to develop other categories like home accessories and breaking into retail by opening at least a dozen freestanding boutiques by 2011.
“All these years we were like a hidden jewel,” said Dweck, seated in his Manhattan showroom surrounded by the bold, organic, handcrafted pieces for which he has become known. “We were always out there, but we never flaunted it. We’re flaunting it now.”
Looking back on a quarter-century in business, Dweck said he treasures many of the back stories involving his creations, such as hearing that a set of napkin rings he designed were presented as a gift to Pope John Paul II and used in the place settings for a Vatican dinner.
“For a Brooklyn-born Jewish boy like myself, that means you’re papally approved,” Dweck quipped.
He also recounted getting a phone call from a favorite client who was detained at an airport because customs agents thought her Dweck jewels were ancient cultural artifacts being smuggled out of the country.
Dweck added, however, that it’s the pieces he’s created that are his true souvenirs.
“One of the pluses of being in business these many years is my own archives,” said Dweck, who has always created jewelry out of his Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, atelier, which he runs with his brothers, Edmond and Gregory. “I figure if I went to the trouble to do a piece once, it’s worth revisiting.”
Dweck is revisiting a few pieces in particular in celebration of the firm’s birthday with the launch of a retrospective collection. The range comprises 25 pieces. Each pays homage to a year during which Dweck was a designer and the subsequent style for which he was best known during that year. The pieces include the sleek stone bangles that jump-started his career in 1981 and were inspired by his studies in sculpture at New York’s School of Visual Arts. Each design is updated to be relevant in 2006.
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In addition, Dweck said he will be dressing up his iconic sterling-silver or bronze Japanese beetle, which he calls “Adam,” and which accents all of his one-of-a-kind pieces, with diamonds for this year only. The retrospective items will retail starting at $750 exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman.
He also has a few goals rising to the top of his wish list, especially those featuring diamonds. Dweck first added onto his signature line — which retails from $250 to $4,000 and combines 18-karat gold, silver, bronze and copper with colorful and exotic semiprecious stones — in 2004 when he introduced his diamond collection. Now he wants to take that collection, which features mostly pavé treatments to the next level.
“I know women love diamonds,” said Dweck. “And if I am going to work with diamonds, I would love to work with stones that are bigger than life and create gutsy pieces with them.”
Home, too, is on Dweck’s wish list. The jewelry designer had a home collection in the Nineties through a license, first with Sasaki China and Crystal in Japan and then with Lunt Silversmiths. Although he said they did well for the firm, the licensors eventually changed direction, and the quality fell to below where he wanted it to be.
“I would love to explore other luxury categories, like home, again to get the Stephen Dweck name out to a broader consumer and other parts of the world,” he said, adding that he is in talks with a few companies but doesn’t anticipate anything coming to fruition for another couple of years.
Jim Gold, president and chief executive officer of Bergdorf Goodman — which was the first retailer to carry Dweck’s work and will launch an atypical Dweck retrospective exhibit on Sept. 25 in its Fifth Avenue windows and on its main floor — said the designer has the kind of talent that could naturally lead to other categories, like men’s jewelry.
“To stay as relevant as he has for 25 years in the fashion business is impressive,” said Gold.
Dweck also retails at Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Holt Renfrew and Bailey Banks & Biddle, as well as some 200 other points of sale in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, Europe, South Korea and Japan. Dweck said he sees on the horizon retail boutiques selling the full range of his work, but the firm is proceeding cautiously.
“There has to be a reason,” Dweck said. “I would never want to offend my retail partners, so I would only want to do it if I want to exhibit something they can’t. But I do know that you have to do something to continue to challenge yourself and to challenge and entertain the customer, as well as find a new customer. If I’m playing all my cards right and I’m blessed, I will be doing this until I’m 90. And it gets tricky because in this business you have to stay inventive to stay interesting.”