Myth Maker’s Paradise

I’m going to be frank. I haven’t done a great deal since I got back from California.  Call it a freelance funk.  Every time I try and muster up some energy to plan a day of worthwhile activities, my mind wanders back to the meeting of sea, vertical cliffs and redwood trees in Big Sur, soundtracked by Yumi Zouma and You’ll Never Get to Heaven.  And then I go into a Sur-induced slump.  The slowdown does of course coincide with the quiet August before fashion weeks brew up again in September.  But hush… who wants to think about that just yet, when I can sit around Googling images that relate to sulphur baths at the Esalen Institute, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell at the Big Sur Folk Festival and read and re-read Big Sur literary aficionados Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller and Hunter S. Thompson and what they have to say about this place, this “myth-make’s paradise, so vast and so varied and so beautiful that the imagination of the visitor is tempted to run wild at the sight of it.”

Back in July during couture week in Paris, I went to see the recently opened David Yurman boutique in Galeries Lafayette.  A brief history of David Yurman and wife Sybil reveals that a young Yurman once incidentally hitchhiked his way to Big Sur in the early 60s, to revel in the beatnik wave that wound up here in Miller’s wake.  David and Sybil’s sculptural and freehand artistic approach towards jewellery makes David Yurman as a brand, an unusual entity in the world of fine jewellery as DY calls for bracelets, rings and necklaces to be stacked, clang about and worn with a lack of preciousness that belies the actual gemstones and metals.  DY’s signature cable bracelets and pavé rings are here to temporarily bring some sparkle to my Big Sur-ified solitude, before the the real toil of the day begins.

Wearing Molly Goddard dress and David Yurman jewellery

Selection of David Yurman cable bracelets taken at Galeries Lafayette boutique

David Yurman Petit Pavé rings

Esalen Institute, Big Sur

Woman undergoing a head-tapping session, as part of a sensory awareness class in an encounter group at the Esalen Institute

David Yurman gold cable bracelets

Glass roof yurt in Big Sur in 1976 built by Mickey Muennig

David Yurman pinkie ring and Willow ring

Steve McQueen and his wife Neile Adams in a sulphur bath, Big Sur in 1963 photographed by John Dominis

Sandy and Agar in Big Sur 1961 photographed by Hunter S. Thompson

David Yurman Labyrinth and Confetti ring

Juliet at Big Sur 1940 photographed by Man Ray 

Woman sitting on a rock playing a wooden flute at Esalen Institute in Big Sur 1987 photographed by Matthew Naythons

David Yurman Midnight Melange ring taken at the Galeries Lafayette boutique

Photograph by Adarsha Benjamin

Close up of David Yurman Renaissance bracelets

Rogue magazine, October 1961 – Big Sur: The Tropic of Henry Miller by Hunter S. Thompson 

David Yurman Hampton gold chain necklace, oval large link necklace and silver buckle chain necklace

Photograph from Mimi Farina’s Big Sur wedding to Milan Melvin in 1969

David Yurman Starburst double ring

Joan Baez at Big Sur Folk Festival

David Yurman Renaissance bracelets

 Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, and Joan Baez performing at Big Sur Folk Festival at Esalen in 1969

Sulfur bath in Big Sur 1949 photographed by Ellen Auerbach