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May 05, 2021

Podcast Review: Spinelli Kilcollin

I
n February of 2020, we kicked off The COUTURE Podcast with an interview with Yves Spinelli and Dwyer Kilcollin, founders of Spinelli Kilcollin. We had sat down with Yves and Dwyer in person in the COUTURE office in New York City, long before the novelty of sitting down with people in person was, well, a novelty. That first episode was incredibly well-received, with several listeners expressing their surprise at many of the things revealed in the course of our conversation.

The first variations of the ring were made for, and named for, their friends who commissioned pieces.

Below are 10 fun facts we learned from this inaugural podcast:

 

  • While Yves is the official “face” of the brand, the company is, in fact, run by both Yves and Dwyer! Dwyer had originally taken on a less visible role for a number of reasons, chief among them the fact that she was accepted to graduate school for Fine Art about a year after the two launched their brand and so had to shift much of her focus.
  • Spinelli Kilcollin is now well-known for their fabulous interlocking Gallaxy rings. Yves first had the idea for this ring concept while working in retail at Maxfield in Los Angeles, and he commissioned his father, who had been a blacksmith in Italy before moving to Hawaii, to make the first prototype. When the ring arrived, he told his dad that he’d done it wrong, the ring wasn’t exactly what he’d envisioned. But Yves quickly realized how much he loved the ring and started wearing it immediately.
  • Yves wore the ring to work and it instantly garnered interest (and ultimately, orders) among Maxfield’s clientele. Shortly thereafter, he met Dwyer, who also began wearing a version of the ring while working at an art gallery. Through word of mouth, orders started coming in, and they began to realize that they were on to something.
  • The first variations of the ring were made for, and named for, their friends who commissioned pieces.
  • While it may seem like Spinelli Kilcollin was an overnight success, the couple, who are now married and have a child, were not immediately embraced by retailers for several years. Yves even had to start selling off his beloved record collection in order to continue to fund their efforts.
  • A watershed moment came for the couple when Ikram, in Chicago, first saw the rings and immediately commissioned a ring with all diamond pave. After she received her ring, she called Sally Singer, then the Creative Director of Vogue, and told her she had to see these rings. Soon there was a buzz in the Vogue office, and shortly thereafter, the rest of the world!
  • When he was a kid, Yves had the opportunity to interview to get into a prominent kindergarten in Hawaii. Right before his interview, he accidentally sat on his favorite record—a Hawaiian children’s music record—and broke it. He was devastated. His mom bribed him, saying if he did well in the interview, they could go to the record store afterwards, a fact that he innocently shared with his interviewer. He was accepted to the school, and he continues to be an avid record collector to this day.

 

  • Dwyer is a natural athlete. She grew up climbing trees, she was part of the “roller blading movement,” and she’s always been super active; she continues to be a natural with any athletic activity.
  • When Dwyer and Yves were first starting Spinelli Kilcollin, they each had jobs working for other people, and they also started a rock band. Eventually, the toll of running their own business and working jobs became too much and, much to Yves’ chagrin, they had to drop the band.
  • Dwyer and Yves have an amazing “jewelry emergency” story. Yves had designed an engagement ring for Dwyer and was planning on proposing to her while to two were in Tokyo. Yves somehow misplaced the ring and so naturally, he panicked! Without telling Dwyer what he’d lost, just that it was important, the two began to retrace their steps throughout Tokyo. Finally, in one of their many cab rides, after several hours of Dwyer trying to calm Yves down, telling him that whatever it was he’d lost wasn’t that big of a deal, he blurted out, “It was your engagement ring!” Of course, the ring was safe and sound on someone’s desk in a back office of Ron Herman.

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