Izzy A.: Hip Hop’s Diamond District Jeweler Legend

Izzy: My partner and I Gabriel met in the eighth grade. we had mutual friends but didn’t really connect. Years later, around the same time that I had started working in the district, I saw him working as a flyer boy “hawk”. Couple years later he got a job literally next door to where I worked at the time. Forced us to compete even got a bit ugly at times between us.

Our relationship took its biggest pivot when a person close to us both unfortunately passed away and me and him sat next to each other at the funeral. Mourning the loss of our beloved friend /mentor we created a bond and started to discuss the trends we have both noticed in the industry. We found that as different as we were we had a lot in-common.

Fast forward my partner Gabriel approached me with a business opportunity to open up a company together “NYCLUXURY” I was interested but not convinced he had dreams and set goals that i thought were impossible to reach, i felt we were too young and had little to no capital to make it happen.

Originally I passed on it. Later Gabriel went along without me and started the company but allowed me to constantly have my finger on the pulse of the business and kept me involved with what he was doing. Seeing him achieve things that I thought were impossible woke me up and inspired me to take the leap of faith. I sat with him again and he gave me what i felt was a no brainer deal to come work with him, with the right to buy into the company if i felt it was worth it within the first year.

I almost instantly fell in love with the brand and its mission and filled many holes in the companies supply chain and manufacturing issues and introduced a lot of vendors and relationships to the company. Having a strong clientele made it a smooth transition as well. Buying into the company was one of the riskiest moves i had ever done, but the saying goes “no risk no reward”.

Respect: How long have you been working in the Diamond District?

Izzy: I have been working in the District for about 11 years now and my approach to market and business model has changed significantly from year one. I feel like I’m evolving and improving as a business man/jewelry designer.

Respect: What is motivation to you as you have never given up on your journey?

Izzy: Motivation is like a flame. You try to keep it lit no matter the circumstances or obstacles, that being said the most important motivator is the lack of options. Like when one has no choice but to succeed often times they do. I fight and push forward the most when my back is against the wall and giving up is not an option for me.

Throughout my career my drive and motivation has been challenged plenty. I was forced to find small practices to keep that flame alive and burning. One that has been proven time and time again, that works for me personally is meditation. Sometimes it is important to slow down, clear your mind and remember the core of what and why you are in it for. I have noticed that stress and pressures cloud ones true judgement and vision, it is super important to constantly remind yourself why you are doing this.

Respect: What kind of head space do you have to have in order to run a successful business?

Izzy: Observing the industry from inside out I have seen plenty of businesses go belly up due to emotional decisions from the owners or people with positions of power in the company. Its been one of my challenges throughout the journey of being a business owner, to make decisions removing emotions and ego from my thought process. You want to be emotionally involved with your business, you need to love your company and team but that shouldn’t govern your actions.

Respect: What was the inspiration behind your newest collection?

Izzy: inspirations behind some of our designs has recently changed. We used to find our inspirations from pop-culture and trends in the industry, but lately our design and creative process has shifted to focus on more contemporary designs, we find that “hip-hop” jewelry as a whole has been selling fun and cool trendy designs that are always in and out of style.

While NYC Luxury is now looking for inspirations from timeless work from contemporary designers like Harry Winston and Graf. We have been using much higher quality stones with more simple and timeless looks, we are looking to create products our clients can enjoy forever and keep our items as family heirlooms instead of just pushing them whats hot this week like most of our competitors.

To see what new collection Izzy. A is working on next, visit the official NYC Luxury website here.