A Prince Who Is ‘Fascinated by Gems’

Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia has a notable pedigree. His lineage, which involves Catherine the Fantastic, also encompasses the deposed royal people of Italy, Russia and Greece — and his mother is Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Parma, recognised for her magnificent collection of emeralds.

“I would see her finding all set to go out,” the prince recalled, “wearing her jewelry, in particular her emeralds. They had been attractive.”

Thanks to people early visions, he claimed, “I’ve often been fascinated by gems.”

The prince, 63, now lives in New York City. His apartment, among exceptional Sutton Place and Beekman Position, is filled with family photographs of elegant females in gowns and tiaras. It is not astonishing that Dimitri — as he prefers to get in touch with himself relatively than making use of Karageorgevich or other transliterated variations of the family identify — would be impressed to structure jewellery. “Gems are my No. 1 passion,” he explained.

To begin with, having said that, he attained a small business law degree from the University of Paris and immediately after going to New York in 1983, worked for the brokerage agency EF Hutton.

Then he could no extended resist. He researched at the Gemological Institute of The usa and started performing in the jewellery department at Sotheby’s, climbing to senior vice president in cost of all jewellery auctions. In 2002, soon after 15 a long time at Sotheby’s, he moved to the New York place of work of what was then Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg, an auction residence in which he was head of the jewellery section.

“After 20 a long time doing work in auctions,” he reported, “I know what is out there, and I know what’s not out there.” And so he was poised to fill a hole or two.

In 1999 he debuted a collection of cuff hyperlinks, which demonstrated his design aesthetic. “The stones converse to me,” he explained. “I maintain a stone and believe, ‘What am I heading to do with it?’”

In this circumstance, he made the decision the gems did not want mountings. So he experienced his workshop drill a tiny hole in the middle of each and every citrine, peridot or amethyst so a publish could hold the gem to the cuff hyperlink, leaving the stone’s edges and back free.

Now he employs the same solution for his signature Lazy Ring: A chunky gem, like an amethyst, is connected to the ring by way of a center hole, but or else the stone can move from facet to side.

“It rolls on your finger,” Dimitri reported. “It’s super glamorous. It reminds you to be in the present moment,” 1 of the concepts of Buddhism, which the prince has researched (he meditates every single working day.) The ring also involves “two minor diamonds hiding in the back. Whimsy is stylish.”

What also is stylish: mixing high and lower. “My mother experienced a sandalwood and gold bracelet by Cartier,” Dimitri recalled, and it impressed him to use wood in his types, generating, for instance, bird’s-eye maple earrings inset with spinels.

The prince and his company lover, Todd Morley, established Prince Dimitri Jewelry in 2007, and it swiftly became well-liked between the social established.

“I met him many years ago as a result of our mutual friend Carolina Herrera, suitable immediately after he opened his atelier on 57th Road,” Judith Price, president of the nonprofit Countrywide Jewelry Institute, wrote in an e-mail. “At that time you could get his creations or convey stones for the structure of bespoke parts.

“Dimitri remains a darling for haute joaillerie of the stylish women who lunch,” she reported, adding, “His additional cost-effective bijoux nonetheless categorical that perception of traditional model. In spite of his title and circle of renowned purchasers, Dimitri is each charming and down to earth.”

Though recognized mostly for making the type of opulent jewelry his ancestors could possibly have worn — his Masterpiece assortment, which ranges from $150,000 to $1.2 million — a handful of yrs in the past Dimitri started to develop reduce-priced strains. They often are inspired by his appreciate of historical past, decorative arts and different cultures, as the stacks of textbooks sharing house with loved ones photographs on the tops of antique aspect tables in his dwelling space attests.

“I adore Damascus metal, which was employed in the swords of the crusaders in the course of the Center Ages,” he stated, so he utilised it for sequence of crosses. The knot of Savoy, “a symbol of legitimate appreciate,” is an additional motif that seems in slender gold bracelets and earrings, whilst the paisley of India motivated the gracefully curved outline of a pendant.

The designer named the collections with the shared wording The New Look of, adopted by Chic, Like, Amazing and Glamour. Items variety from $190 to $20,000. (Neiman Marcus is selling a amount of the New Glance pieces, showcased in its 2021 Xmas catalog.)

Luca Lo Sicco grew to become a supporter right after seeing a tiara that Dimitri had created in an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. A professor at Savannah School of Artwork and Layout at the time, he invited Dimitri to check out the school for a week in 2017 to mentor learners in fashion marketing and advertising and administration.

“He shared his knowledge of the managerial procedure,” he reported. “He was so type and wonderful.”

And so Dimitri was invited to return the next yr. “For the jewelry division, we did a project on luxurious jewelry,” Dr. Lo Sicco explained. “We chosen 3 providers: Verdura, Bulgari and Prince Dimitri. The pupils who chose him as a corporation worked on a hypothetical strategy, which Dimitri took on board.”

The college students redesigned his web-site, introducing e-commerce and that includes the New Look lines to “show I can style and design in every selling price place,” Dimitri mentioned.

The internet site also sells his guide, “Once On a Diamond: A Relatives Custom of Royal Jewels,” prepared with Lavinia Branca Snyder. Released by Rizzoli in 2020, the e book has a foreword by Ms. Herrera and an introduction by François Curiel, Christie’s chairman for Europe. The e-book, offered by Neiman Marcus and other outlets, is in a 2nd printing.

“He’s been sort of a solution identify, a cult classic,” claimed Marion Fasel, founder of the jewelry web-site the Adventurine. “It’s time for this underground identify to be perfectly-known. Maybe now that he’s put his total story together in a guide, he’s completely ready for a new chapter.”

But lest any individual forget his roots, the Prince Dimitri symbol capabilities a crown.