Helen Yarmak’s New York Atelier Is a Sanctuary for Beauty, Craft, and Calm
By any measure, Helen Yarmak has built a career that defies easy categorization. A mathematician by training, an artist by instinct, and an entrepreneur by necessity, Yarmak has spent decades creating jewelry and fashion that feel at once intellectually rigorous and emotionally charged. This month, she adds a new chapter to that story with the debut of her atelier at 14 East 60th Street—an address steeped in history, architecture, and an almost palpable sense of old-world New York elegance.
The location is no accident. Situated in the Upper East Side’s historic district, steps from Fifth Avenue and on the same block as The Metropolitan Club, the building offers a rare blend of grandeur and intimacy. Originally constructed in 1903 as Hotel Fourteen and later expanded, the 13-story structure retains its original stone walls, ornate plaster ceilings, and grand fireplace. Large windows flood the space with natural light, creating an atmosphere that feels more like a private residence than a commercial showroom. It is precisely the kind of environment Yarmak believes her work requires.
“Energy is very important,” she says. “This building has beautiful organs, beautiful art pieces, very good atmosphere. It’s calm, it’s elegant. People feel it immediately.”
That sense of calm is not incidental—it is central to Yarmak’s philosophy. When asked about inspiration, her answer is disarmingly simple. “My inspiration is life,” she says. “Sometimes clothes make a person aggressive. Sometimes different types of clothes make people peaceful. I want to make something that makes people happy and peaceful, and comfortable with themselves.”
In uncertain times, when fashion often mirrors chaos or excess, Yarmak’s response is to move in the opposite direction. “The world around us is very tough,” she acknowledges. “So we dream about peace. We would like to do everything we can to make people more calm.”
Her work has long attracted those who understand that point of view. Yarmak’s clients include Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Chris Brown, among many others. Yet she bristles at the idea that designing for celebrities is somehow more demanding than designing for private clients. “Big celebrities are easier,” she says without hesitation. “They are polite, special, very nice. They appreciate what they achieved. The next-level celebrity—this is disaster,” she adds with a laugh.
At the heart of Yarmak’s practice is an intense, almost visceral relationship with materials. She is renowned for her use of distinctive colored gemstones—Paraíba tourmalines, Ceylon sapphires, vibrant rubellites, limpid beryl—and for her refusal to compromise when selecting them. “It is love at first sight,” she says. “If I do not feel a connection with a stone, I do not choose it.”
That instinctive approach sits in fascinating tension with her academic background. Yarmak holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and began her professional life in science, not fashion. The leap from equations to embellishment, however, was less dramatic than it might appear. “I loved fashion all my life,” she explains. Economic realities forced her to pivot, and necessity became invention. She began designing lingerie in her kitchen, working with a Russian factory that had beautiful fabrics but little creative direction. “I started my business with zero money,” she recalls. “I didn’t even have money to pay for the dress I ordered. They believed in my idea and started without any investment from me.”
From that improbable beginning, Yarmak built a global business with salons in Manhattan, Miami, Milan, and Moscow. The common thread has always been originality and rarity. “Every piece is one of a kind,” she says. “They are collected pieces—timeless, family pieces. They can go from grandmother to granddaughter.”
Selling those pieces, however, is not always easy for her. “I would like to keep everything,” she admits. “But we must pay bills.” What matters most is not the transaction but the connection. “We want to sell only to somebody who really understands what they buy, who appreciates that this is art.”
Trends, in the conventional sense, hold little appeal. “We don’t follow trends,” Yarmak says flatly. “They make trends.” She is equally protective of her creative process, hinting at new materials and techniques without revealing specifics. “I don’t want to describe the secret yet,” she says. “But I think you will love it.”
Looking ahead, her ambitions are expansive yet focused. She dreams of launching new lines—eyewear, ready-to-wear concepts—and of one day relinquishing the operational burdens that come with running a business. “I want to do just design,” she says. “I don’t want to do management or financial. So far, I do everything. That is not my dream. My dream is to create.”
In many ways, the new atelier is a physical manifestation of that dream: a space designed to slow people down, invite contemplation, and remind them that luxury can be quiet, emotional, and deeply personal. In a city that rarely pauses, Helen Yarmak has created a refuge—one where beauty is not about spectacle, but about feeling something real.https://www.helenyarmak.com/