Loutfic Chakardemian Talks Creative Elements Behind Yeprem

Yeprem was established in 1964 by Yeprem Chakardemian. He started his high-jewelry brand after he was inspired by a gold bracelet that was gifted to him by his mother. His two sons, Loutfic and John, and his daughter, Virna, joined him as they succeeded to expand all over four continents. Loutfic and Virna take over the creative side of things with Loutfic as the designer and Virna as the creative director. John leads the corporate side of the family-owned business as the head of sales and operations.

Loutfic Chakardemian is responsible for the design of The Claw, the iconic jewelry piece which is celebrating a decade this year since its launch. Loutfic creates the artistic jewelry pieces with intricate details and strong yet feminine designs. His designs are often seen on celebrities on the red carpet, and he has been successful enough to inspire many jewelry brands.

3oud.com virtually meets with Loutfic Chakardemian for an interview as he talks about the iconic Claw design and the challenges he faces as a designer.

1. Who is the quintessential Yeprem girl or client?

They always ask me this question, especially when I do events and trunk shows. It’s usually the women who want to be different and like to receive compliments from their friends. In the luxury world, especially nowadays, people go after the same designs, but lately I’m feeling that women want to change. They want to feel like they have something different, and our designs are very different and elegant. The big brands are already saturated, and the other brands are nice and have their own identity, but we are a different category because it’s a different kind of jewelry. We created a new way of wearing jewelry and that’s why women want to feel different and have an experience and our brand is very experimental. As soon as someone tries one of our pieces, they feel transformed. First, they look at the design and think it’s different and when they try it, they feel powerful. That’s how our business is growing because when someone wears something from us, their friends ask, “where is it from? How do you wear that? Is it comfortable?”

2. From your perspective, what are the three most important elements that you think of when designing a piece?

Number one is emotions. Every time I design a piece, I make sure it gives the same emotion. Powerful or different or creative or innovative. Disruptive. Number two: the design should unique. Every design should be new. Every time we launch a new collection, I make sure that the client will be surprised or shocked. Every time I go to a trunk show or event or we launch a new collection, it’s not the same as the other collections or simply adjusted or made small changes. It’s totally new. So, design is very important. Number three is engineering. The engineering is important because of my background. I became a master goldsmith so I know how each piece should be made. It should be comfortable and wearable. It should have very good finishing because when someone wears it, they should feel that they’re wearing something that should not break. It’s very comfortable and won’t hurt because the designs that we have, the more different designs, not the regular ones, I make sure they are very comfortable and are well-engineered because I studied body parts and which part of the hand moves and is flexible.

3. Yeprem is celebrating a decade of The Claw design. Since it was iconic, what do you think about The Claw that made people admire the piece as much as they do?

It first started by being a new way of wearing jewelry. The Claw was my first design. It was very strange. While doing the design and it was in production, we had many negative critics from day one. Even from my father. He said, “who will buy this? How will we sell it?” But as soon as the piece was ready, we launched it and people were eager and curious to try it to see what kind of jewelry it is. The only way to have continuity in any business is innovation so we by doing such designs plus the feeling you get when you wear it. It makes you feel like you are superwoman and like you are on top of the world. You are different and will receive the best compliments so it’s all an experience, The Claw. I have done many pieces, and some are more different but I’m not the one to decide which piece will sell more or which piece will be more successful.

4. What are your favorite jewelry trends right now?

I’m very much into yellow gold but because the yellow with our jewelry is very beautiful and authentic. People feel as if they’re buying traditional gold but in a modern way. The white gold, I still love a lot like most people but when you wear white gold, people can assume that it’s an accessory or it’s zircon but when you wear yellow, they know it’s for sure real.

5. What is the biggest challenge you face yourself?

As a designer, honestly, I face this challenge every morning or every night. That’s why I always pray to God to keep my creativity because this is not something physical you do with your hands. It’s something that comes from the mind or from the heart. I am always thankful that I come to work, and I still have the creativity. As a designer, when I hold the pen, it’s not every single day or every minute you can think of something. You must be in the mood. You have to be ready for it but not every day you can design and every day I don’t design, I start to panic and think it’s over. And then I got used to it. I know that I’m not in the mood and the next day, I start to design again.

6. Where do you find inspiration when you’re designing something new?

In my office, it’s forbidden to bring any catalogues or any sort of jewelry. I don’t like to see other jewelry when I go to a trade show because unconsciously you will be inspired so every time, I want to start a new collection or design, I make sure it’s not inspired by anything. Even our designs are not inspired by nature or flowers or characters. It’s everything, like the Big Bang Theory. From nothing, comes everything. This is my inspiration. To create something out of nothing and not be inspired from anything because when you go look at the jewelry, you think it is a new idea. This is something very different from what we see around.

7. Because Yeprem is family business, how do you try to find a solution if someone from your family disagrees with you?

This is a very important issue, especially for us. I’m also taking an executive MBA program and I did a few courses on family businesses in Madrid. From day one, we agreed that each one of us will take the responsibility of something. My sister took the responsibility of the social media, press and advertising. My brother took the corporate side of the business. On the other hand, there is my father who is in his 70’s and he is self-made. He started everything. He’s the one that I deal with the most. I always make sure that he is always involved. Anytime that I make a design, I show him out of respect. I take his opinion because he’s my mentor, so I make sure I ask him. Sometimes he gives me advice on technical issues, not design. My brother is in charge of sales, so he gives me reports that say the rings are doing well and we need to work on the earrings, so he gives me some tips. So far, everything is working very well as a family business because each one of us knows our limits and once in a while we gather, and we have meetings to see what’s the plan for the next season or the coming few years.

8. What do you envision for the future of Yeprem? Do you have any stores that will open soon?

We want to expand of course. We are expanding now, almost every month or year. This year, our brand is now in Brazil, Mexico, and India. These markets weren’t available last year. Plus, we’re focusing a lot now on the digital world. We are available now on several online stores, like Net-a-Porter, Moda Operandi and we are in discussion with other major online platforms. I think the future is e-commerce and online business. We’re working on our new website also and of course we’re planning on opening our mono brand boutiques all over, but this will take time and we are the kind of people that want to move slowly. We don’t want to do everything at once because coming back to that we are a family business, we’re doing everything ourselves. We have managers but my sister, my brother and myself also travel and go to events all the time so we want to keep it under our control. Opening boutiques, it will come slowly slowly so we can have control on everything.