INSIDE

In 2004 you opened your flagship store and corporate offices in Stamford.  Why did you decide on Stamford? Why not choose New York City?

“Well, my wife and I lived up on the Upper West Side and I had a showroom in New York City. We moved out to Shippan Point in 2001 right after Sept. 11. We bought a little house here and renovated it. And then I was commuting into the city, and I said, I have this business, why don’t we try to make this a little easier. So we were looking for a building that we could have luxury retail in the front and offices and distribution in the back. At the time we needed around 10,000 square feet to do that. This building became available in the antique area. It was a natural fit to the front and because it was fairly industrial, the rents were fairly inexpensive so we could distribute out of it. Since then, we’ve moved all the distribution out to another facility, and this is now really a retail and office space. Having both in the same location is really a great laboratory for the design and what we’re trying to do.”

Do you ever just pinch yourself over your company’s tremendous success?

“Yeah, I do pinch myself a lot. My daughters pinch me a lot more. We’ve been very fortunate. We have a very strong team and a clear understanding of what we’re trying to achieve. The company is driven by design. My wife is an inspired designer, so that’s really driven our development. We went from glass to ceramic to linen then to stainless steel flatware and lighting. But within those categories, we’re never trying to do something commercial. We’re not trying to emulate something that’s out there or even think about what a consumer wants as much as design beautiful things.”

 How did the name Juliska come about?

“Juliska was the name of a woman we met who had really started recreating this glassware in Europe. We collaborated with her in the beginning and ended up using her name, which we loved.

“It just really seemed to sing with the glass and had a European feel to it. But it was just very feminine and exquisite. And just kind of spur of the moment, we decided to call it that. Back then this was just a little part of the business I’d established representing other brands, so it was very small. I was still running the agency.”