Samantha Yanks for Jennifer Miller: Closed Set with Julie Bensman

Forget the coffee dates, business lunches, after work cocktails. Nevermind the doctor’s appointments, birthday parties, and travel plans. No matter how jam-packed your schedule may be, Samantha Yanks has got you trumped. The Editor-in-Chief of both Gotham and Hamptons magazines (the latter, a summer WEEKLY, mind you) spends her time in our TriBeCa office Monday-Thursday before scampering off to the Hamptons to work the rest of the week/weekend. Amid conceptualizing, executing, and promoting the magazine’s pages and people, when, oh WHEN, did this lady find the time to design her own jewelry line, Samantha Yanks for Jennifer Miller?

“When I was the fine jewelry and watch editor at Vogue years ago, I loved not only the beauty of certain pieces but also learning about their stones, carat weight, movements, and mining,” Yanks told me. “I’ve been envisioning in my head what I wanted to create for a long time and it finally came time to do it. Jennifer Miller and her husband, Mark, are close friends of mine and my husband, David, so the collaboration came about really naturally and organically.”

The Indian-inspired line of necklaces has already shown up on the necks of famous friends like Heidi Klum. When asked which piece is her personal pick, Samantha says she doesn’t play favorites…but when pushed, I got her to fess up regarding a few. “The first piece I designed will always be a treasure,” she confided. “It’s an oversized diamond tassel with flowing diamond slices, rose cut diamonds, and spinnels. I wore it with this long Sachin+Babi coral dress (I LOVE their clothes) to a friend’s party. I felt so proud to be wearing my first piece that night.” Then again, the sapphire and diamond tassel has been uber-popular since Heidi Klum was spotted wearing it at a recent event.

If your summer, like mine, has included lying in the sun, floating in the water, and rewarding yourself for all your hard work with glasses of rosè and Mister Softee cones, you might be feeling a bit guilty, as I do writing this. How does this woman juggle it all?

“I didn’t realize until I turned 35 this year why my mother had always said there is a turning point at that age,” Samantha says. “To design really takes confidence and, for me, I found it at 35. My mother was right! I try to embody what I believe in, which is to treasure your family, work extraordinarily hard, love who you are and what you do. My family is my source of energy, we’re very close and now, we’re all swathed in really divine jewelry.”

Xoxo,

Julie

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