Thanks to a blizzard that swept New York in 2006, Christian Hemmerle’s first days working for his family jewelry business were irregular. He fondly recalls watching cross-country skiers push along a powdered Fifth Avenue. “The quietest I’ve ever seen in New York,” he says. Outside my window the recently snow-punched city is indeed hushed. Yet even through the digital connection I can feel the sunshine on the other side of the line. Christian is in Palm Beach where jewelry brand Hemmerle has set up a pop-up private viewings suite, having migrated alongside gallery peers like Aquavella and Pace and their shared snowbird clientele.
“Our business is a personal one,” Christian tells me when I ask why he uprooted himself to be in Florida. “My experience working with jewelry requires connection of the kind only in-person meetings and viewing can bring. To uphold the service and the relationships that constitute our business we have to be where our clients are and for now, many of them are based here.”
Traveling to where their people are is an instrumental part of Hemmerle’s model, whether for formal presentations at conventions like TEFAF Maastricht or private appointments at other cultural happenings. This is because at Hemmerle, unlike regular jewelry houses, each piece is one-off, more as a wearable sculpture than an expensive accessory. Gone are the yesteryears of matching sets. Purchasing Hemmerle’s designs requires a tactile spark. It’s an experience that often demands more intimacy than an artwork. The pieces must be touched and admired from all angles after being luxuriously circumnavigated and selected out of the incubated bliss of a lit vitrine.
The jewelry brand’s pop-up space at the Royal Poinciana Plaza in Palm Beach pays attention to the subtleties of this discovery process by playing into the organic upshots of the region. Lush green shoots stripe a showroom with living room vibes. Familiar with the area thanks to yearly personal trips to Art Basel Miami Beach, Christian wanted to ensure the vacation atmosphere was enhanced. “The Miami mindset is unique,” he says. “When we travel, we always want to be respectful of the setting we are in.”
The jewelry on view also favors the local flavor—no color is too bright. Vibrant greens aplenty seem to distill the tropical foliage into small reliquaries. I ask if there are any clichés referenced when curating the selection. Christian is quick to dispel my bad assumption. “Everyone is global now; the Miami woman is in fact the international woman. It’s about individuals, which is more interesting anyway,” he laughs. “But I can’t share those names.”
The thing that seems to most align Hemmerle with Miami is its dedication not only to decadence but to the everyday. The pieces that Hemmerle creates are not only for special occasions but truly designed to be enjoyed in daily life. Like the decor-inflicted city, Hemmerle lets the extraordinary elevate the day-to-day with ease, whether finding the dazzling hush in an epic storm or seeing the potential of history and honoring it with exceptional means.
Hemmerle is at The Royal Poinciana Plaza in Palm Beach until February 16. Private appointments required via email at rsvp@hemmerle.com; hemmerle.com
