Clients-Only Club Lugano Privé Cultivates Community on the California Riviera

By Victoria Gomelsky | All photographs courtesy of Lugano Members of Lugano Privé, an exclusive social club for clients of Lugano Diamonds, a high-end jeweler in Newport Beach, California, have access to just about anything their hearts desire. View full issue. They can enjoy meals overseen by world-renowned chefs such as Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud, sip rare and limited-production wines curated by sommelier Daniel Mason (a $6,000 bottle of cabernet sauvignon from the cult Napa label Screaming Eagle, anyone?), and attend intimate concerts and lectures where artists circulate among the crowd. When Kristin Chenoweth performed last winter, “there was not a dry eye in the house,” says Moti Ferder, cofounder and chief executive of Lugano. One thing Lugano Privé members can’t do within the confines of the club? Buy jewelry. “Members pay to belong,” Ferder explains. “It’s their sanctuary. And it’s extremely important that they know this is not a place of solicitation. It’s a place where we build relationships.” Ferder won’t reveal the price of an annual Privé membership, but if you have to ask, you al- most certainly can’t afford one. The club—which opened in April 2023 in a 7,500-square-foot former restaurant adjacent to Lugano Diamonds’ Fashion Island salon, where one can purchase Lugano jewelry—exudes quiet, tasteful luxury. The only concession to jewelry is a single built-in showcase highlighting a rotating selection of one-of-a-kind pieces, such as a spectacular butterfly brooch studded with iridescent opals, blue sapphires, and green tsavorites. The Privé concept dates back to Lugano’s first jewelry showroom, which Ferder and his wife, Idit, opened in Newport Beach in 2005 after immigrating to Southern California from their native Israel. (The company—which now has seven U.S. salons, including Aspen, Palm Beach, and Greenwich—moved to its current Fashion Island location in 2022. An eighth salon opened in London in April.) Idit, Lugano’s chief operating officer, not only conceptualized the club but decorated it as an extension of her home, adding elegant touches like art by Jorge Pardo and Barbara Kasten, and a lighting sculpture by Andreea Braescu. But the club is about more than elegance and exclusivity. Philanthropy matters deeply to the Ferders. Lugano Diamonds supports 120-plus organizations involved in education, health and wellness, and the arts. To qualify for Lugano Privé membership, one must also have a history of charitable giving and caring for the local community. To describe Moti and Idit as peripatetic would be an understatement. Between visiting their jewelry salons and attending many of the global equestrian events Lugano sponsors, the Ferders travel extensively, making them uniquely qualified to wax poetic about the comforts of home. “It doesn’t matter how prestigious the hotel is, you’re always happy to come home,” Ferder says. “And that’s all we want to achieve at Privé—you walk in and it’s a familiar, warm place where you’re happy to be and you’re happy to meet the people spending time there.”