Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/101703
STYLE SETTER President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama ABOVE: Multirow diamond ring in Lester Lampert showroom. LEFT: Cuff links designed by David Lampert for President Obama's inauguration. the ring master BY ELLE EICHINGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM KLEIN I n the Field Museum's Grainger Hall of Gems, there's a ring with breathtaking organic design: More than 50 diamonds climb, leaf-like, up its yellow-gold sides to a blooming three-carat flower of demantoid garnet. The ring is one of 27 pieces in the Hall of Gems designed by Oak Street mainstay Lester Lampert, Chicago's four-generation jewelry powerhouse. The so-called "Garnet of Eden" ring was designed by the jeweler's youngest gemological craftsman, David Lampert, who—in addition to his innumerable one-of-akind designs—can customize versions of the unique piece for his clients. "We're artists," David says, referring not just to himself but to the Lamperts who came before him—great-grandfather David, who in 1920 opened an eponymous company from which Lester Lampert derived; grandfather Seymour; and father Lester, who still comes to his store daily. (David's sister, Fradine, is also involved in the company.) "We've always Nearly every Lester Lampert piece is created onsite from start to finish. PHOTOGRAPHY BY RON SACHS-POOL/GETTY IMAGES (OBAMA) JEWELRY DESIGNER DAVID LAMPERT CARRIES ON A FAMILY TRADITION OF CRAFTING MUSEUMWORTHY WEARABLES. looked to create art in jewelry; it's what separates us and our store from a lot of the others around." The family is involved in every step of the creative process; the boutique occupies a four-story building in the Gold Coast, and nearly every piece is created onsite from start to finish. Given that the business is steeped in nearly a century of tradition, the methods David uses to create custom jewelry are surprisingly innovative. He obtained his first patent a decade ago, and a peek into his office reveals a computer running high-tech design software and a brand-new 3-D printer tucked into a corner. The relatively new computeraided design (CAD) software he uses to design a piece of jewelry allows David to work in fractions of a millimeter. "I'll spend an hour on an angle or a curve to make it the way I want," he says. "But I've David Lampert always said that in computer-aided design, the focus is at his Oak Street jewelry house, on the 'aided.' You still need to be a designer." Lester Lampert. David's abilities as a designer have been honed beyond a carat of a doubt: professionally for 25 years, and unofficially for even longer. Beginning in his early teenage years, he was helping his dad, Lester, at the store. "I was designing jewelry when I was 14," he says. A graduate gemologist, David is able to translate his ideas to paper or screen with vivid realism; now, since acquiring the 3-D printer less than a year continued on page 66 64 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 064-066_MA_SS_StyleSetter_Winter13.indd 64 1/2/13 12:17 PM