Located in the heart of New York City’s Diamond District on 47th street, between 5th and 6th Avenue, business partners, Gavriel Davidov and Izzy Luxury aka Izzy the Jeweler have pieced together a diamond empire, icing out some of the biggest names in the world of entertainment and sports with personalized jewelry.
Gavriel Davidov, his brother Moses Davidov, and Izzy the Jeweler established their partnership under NYC Luxury in 2017 and since then they’ve spent countless hours refining their craft, operating under tight deadlines and always exceeding the over-the-top expectations of their celebrity clientele. With the capability to produce endlessly elaborate designs that one can conjure , NYC Luxury helps clients make a bold statement with their luxurious custom pieces.
Designing diamond chains and iced out pendants for the likes of Virgil Abloh, Drake, Lil Durk and Lil Baby, there’s no question this dynamic team of jewelers and experts have made their lasting mark on the jewelry industry and the Diamond District for years to come. “We are constantly working on making our brand more luxurious with each new creation. and pushing the limits of what can be created with these resources. We are endlessly challenged because we are creating art combining one of the softest metals with one of the hardest minerals,” Izzy the Jeweler explained.
“We are working with some of the most expensive materials in the world to create a cartoon character and it’s become second nature to us,” Gavriel Davidov added. “We are constantly reminding ourselves what we are doing for a living. We are taking the most rare and the most expensive materials in the world to create fun pieces so that people can enjoy and express themselves through art.”
At one point in time during this rags to riches story, the founders were neighboring businesses competing for a piece of the same pie, not knowing that someday they would become good friends and business partners making millions a year and working with high-profile customers. Gavriel recalls taking a blind leap of faith in trusting his new business partners after starting with virtually nothing in 2014.
“I was missing an element of my business that Izzy had,” Gavriel Davidov explained. “He grew up amongst the jeweler community, a lot of guys from the community are fellow Jews. And I was just like an outsider, people didn’t really know me. So it was really hard for me to win the guy’s trust in me. So I knew I had to get a familiar face on my team and Izzy was that guy. He had what I was missing. I was focused on growing my sales and it made sense to partner with somebody who was smart with the supply chain and manufacturing so I gave him an opportunity to come work for me. Seven months later I offered him equity in the company and we partnered up.”
The partnership led to massive growth on a scale Gavriel, Izzy and Moses hadn’t imagined, achieving over 200 and 300 percent growth year after year. Among a range of personalized jewelry options for clients, NYC Luxury specializes in Cuban links, picture pendants, custom tennis chains, real gold necklaces and personalized watches.
“Me and my brother Moses had a business and now we had a third person, so now we could be in 3 different cities and all be selling in these different cities. If we screw one another, then we screw over ourselves and I just took a blind leap of faith in the business. Once we put our brands together and combined forces, we were having 200-300 percent growth,” Gavriel Davidov said.
“Our business started doubling and then doubling again. We did 3 million, 6 million, then 10 million, then 20 million. Now our e-commerce site just launched and we are at almost one million in sales just online. We really just focused on each other’s strengths. I knew I wasn’t the strongest in manufacturing and so I focused on the human resources aspect of the business and Izzy focused on the supply chain and manufacturing aspect of the business. The human resources element was really what separated us from the bunch. Our sales team is very diverse and we weren’t just hiring his family like everyone else in the space. We have people from all walks of life at NYC Luxury.”
Beyond the business savvy practices, the depth and magnitude of NYC Luxury’s work within the fashion industry is legendary. They had one such opportunity when the late Virgil Abloh asked them to help him design his signature candlestick caricature as a necklace.
“I create almost all the pieces we make and I like getting that phone call to see how far I can push the bar,” Izzy the Jeweler recalled. “First, you have to acknowledge that this guy’s a creative genius right? That was the first time our design team was completely obsolete and not needed at all. Virgil completely designed the whole piece himself with just a little of our help. It was the first time we ever got a 3D print in the mail of an item that a client wanted us to make.”
“I worked with Virgil for about 6 months on this piece. You know just going back and forth and changing minor things. We changed the design maybe like 4 or 5 times and it was just very interesting to work with him because he was just such a creative mind and it was just a different way of going back and forth about what he would change. He would change the most minor details which kind of reminds me of myself because I’m very anal about details. He would change the smallest things and it’s just not what an average client would think of when we work with them.”
“I also really liked making the Lil Baby piece, that was one of my favorite pieces I made. And of course Lil Durk – he’s my day one guy. Like I mean me and Durk go way back like since 2014. “
Recalling some of his favorite work, Gavriel Davidov spoke about his team coming together to make Drake’s emoji chain which had 23 different pieces assembled to make one chain.
“My favorite piece that we made was Drake’s piece, the one with the emojis. I’m a big fan of Drake. I’ve been listening to his music for a while now and it’s just iconic that we got to work with him. I like the fact that there were 23 pieces assembled to make an actual chain, so 23 individual projects. We had a very short deadline to do it, but I kinda liked to see how our team came together. I liked how it was all hands on deck and how we succeeded and executed correctly when not too many companies in the world can do that. Not too many companies can come together and divide up the work and bring it all together and be involved and execute as well as we did. I’m so proud of this team. When Drake posted it on a story, it just solidified us in the jewelry space, like these guys are here and they’re not leaving, they’re here to stay.”