David Roytman x Valentin Yudashkin: How a Russian Couturier and an Israeli Judaica House Built a Collection Together
There are not many collaborations in luxury Judaica. The category is small, the makers are local, and the codes are tight. So when David Roytman and Valentin Yudashkin sat down to design a kippah together, the idea was unusual on its face. A Russian couturier whose name was synonymous with Moscow's haute couture for thirty years, and an Israeli Judaica designer whose kippot have been worn by world leaders. The collaboration is one of the most unlikely things in either career, and it produced what is now the highest-tier line in the David Roytman atelier.
This is the story of how it happened, what was made, and why it still matters.
Two careers, two worlds
Valentin Yudashkin (1963 to 2023) was a couturier in the European sense. Trained as an artist, he founded his fashion house in Moscow in 1987 and over four decades dressed Russian first ladies, foreign heads of state, and the highest tier of Russian and international clientele. His pieces sat in permanent collections at the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His specialty was technique, dense embroidery, hand-set crystal work, the slow craft of haute couture in a world that had largely moved to ready-to-wear.
David Roytman started his luxury Judaica house in Israel in 2015. His training was in textile and craft, his customer base was the diaspora and Israeli traditional communities, and his standard product was the hand-finished kippah in materials no one else was using at scale: python, crocodile, ostrich, italian leather. By the early 2020s the brand had been worn by Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Groisman, and the Russian-language artist Alisher Morgenstern, and the Wikipedia page for David Roytman Luxury Judaica was already live.
The two designers met through their shared market. Yudashkin had Russian and Russian-speaking clients across Europe and Israel. Roytman had the same. The ask from the customer base was implicit. Could the two of them produce something together that did not exist in the market.
What the collaboration produced
The David Roytman x Valentin Yudashkin collection sits today as a separate line in the David Roytman catalog. The full collection is at David Roytman x Valentin Yudashkin.
The line breaks into two product types, kippot and jewelry.
The kippot
Twelve hand-finished kippot, each in a material Yudashkin had used in his couture house and Roytman had used in his atelier. Several stand out.
Classic kippah in white python with the Star of David. The Star of David is hand-set in Swarovski crystal on white python leather. A piece designed for a wedding or a gift moment.
Modern kippah in italian leather, Brooklyn starry sky. A black italian leather body with the Star of David in Swarovski against a starry-sky pattern. The Brooklyn name is a reference to the Chabad-770 community in Crown Heights.
Modern kippah in red python with the Star of David. Red python is rare, dyed at the tannery rather than the atelier. Combined with a hand-set Star of David in metallic thread.
Modern kippah in blue crocodile with David Star. Crocodile, blue dye, set with metallic thread. Among the most expensive pieces in the line.
Several denim variations of the Modern and Classic cuts, each with the Star of David in different colored editings, often with metallic thread. The denim pieces are entry-tier for the collaboration but still hand-finished.
The jewelry
The Ice and Fire pendant is the central piece of the jewelry side. It exists in seven variations: silver, silver with cubic zirconia, gold, white gold, white gold with sapphires, gold with diamonds, and white gold with diamonds. The pendant is a stylized form combining diamond and flame motifs, a reference to the Hebrew "esh u'maim," fire and water, the ancient symbology of opposite elements united.
The Ice and Fire pendant in white gold with diamonds is the highest-priced piece in the David Roytman catalog. The version in silver with cubic zirconia is the entry point for someone who wants the design without the precious metal.
Browse the Pendants collection.
What made the collaboration work
Two practical things, then one less obvious one.
Practical one: shared customer base. Both designers' clients sat at the intersection of Russian, Israeli, and Jewish-diaspora luxury. Many of the same names appear on both client lists. The collaboration did not have to invent a market.
Practical two: complementary craft. Yudashkin brought Swarovski-setting craft and a five-decade relationship with European tanneries and crystal suppliers. Roytman brought Judaica fluency, the right symbol literacy, and an atelier that could produce kippot at couture quality. Neither designer would have produced these pieces alone.
The less obvious one: timing. Yudashkin produced these pieces in the last few years of his life. He passed away in 2023. The collection that exists is finite. The molds, the patterns, the stones used were purposefully limited. There will not be a second run.
Where the collaboration sits today
The David Roytman x Valentin Yudashkin collection remains in the Israeli atelier in active production from the existing patterns and stock. New customers continue to acquire pieces. The collection is not closed, but it is no longer expanding. Every piece sold is one fewer in the world.
For collectors of either designer, for buyers seeking a piece that bridges traditional Jewish symbology with European haute couture craft, and for anyone interested in fashion history, the collection is one of the more unusual things in luxury Judaica today.
Selected pieces
A short list for first-time browsers.
- Pendant Ice and Fire in white gold with diamonds, Yudashkin x David Roytman
- Pendant Ice and Fire in silver with cubic zirconia, Yudashkin x David Roytman
- Modern kippah in italian leather, Brooklyn starry sky, Yudashkin x David Roytman
- Classic kippah in white python with Star of David, Yudashkin x David Roytman
- Modern kippah in blue crocodile with David Star, Yudashkin x David Roytman
On the loss of Valentin Yudashkin
Valentin Yudashkin passed in 2023 after a long battle with cancer. The David Roytman atelier continues the production of the collaboration line as a tribute to his work and as a continuation of the partnership that produced these pieces. Each piece sold carries the memory of a couturier who treated technique as the highest form of design.