Dru Hammer Kicks Off druville Pop-Up Tour in Westhampton Beach

Dru Hammer is combining 40-plus years of design experience with her lifelong passion for charity to pre-launch her Palm Beach-based druville brand with a pop-up tour kicking off in the Hamptons this weekend.

Since her formative years, Hammer has been drawn to striking colors and bold prints — bright green crocodiles on hot pink and the like — and this carried over into her high-end home design, development and real estate career.

“My sons are the reason that I got the name ‘Druville’ because they would tell people that they grew up in Whoville (Dr. Seuss), because I decorate with hot pinks, lime greens, yellows and turquoise,” Hammer shares.

Hammered Heart Foundation

As she created new designs that she felt the high-end design landscape was lacking, she wondered if she might trademark them. Despite the low odds, as her attorney warned, Hammer was able to trademark all 11 of her initial designs, proving how unique they truly were.

“I started getting into designing different things, and then I finally thought, ‘Why am I not just launching this?’” Hammer asked herself, realizing doing so would allow her to better support her very personal Hammered Heart Foundation, helping women and children.

After 25 years of marriage into the Armand Hammer family resulted in a long, painful divorce, she felt that her heart had been bruised and “hammered.” Later, on a trip to Israel, she discovered a stone that mirrored what she was feeling: the image of a hammered heart.

“I had a God moment. I just felt like God was going to take my hammered heart,” Hammer remembers. “There’s a Bible verse that says, ‘5He’ll take your heart of stone and turn it to flesh, and He’ll heal your heart’ — and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to be OK.’”

After this realization — and another soon after, following a flat tire and a costly fix — Hammer couldn’t shake the idea that there are countless more hammered hearts in the world, and many don’t have access to the same resources she does. She sought to support these individuals through the creation of the Hammered Heart Foundation and through the support of various other charities serving a broad range of people.

“I’m so grateful in the position that I’m in, but there are a lot of women who come out who are not in the same position and it’s very difficult,” she says. “That’s why I give to a wide range of charities, which help abused children, and help women coming off of drug addiction and alcoholism, and battered women, and sometimes single women who just aren’t making it.”

With trademarks in tow and newfound dedication to hammered hearts in need, Hammer asked herself, “How cool would it be to start a company and be able to design and be creative AND give back at the same time?”

druville Brand Takes Shape

Thus, the druville brand was born, and the first stop of its pre-launch tour is scheduled for Kerrigan Country Realty in Westhampton Beach. The pop-up store will be open July 15–17, Friday and Saturday from 4–7 p.m. and Sunday from 1–4 p.m.

“I just thought it would be fun to do a pre-launch in these wonderful places like the Hamptons and see what products are received the best, what are the best sellers, what women really love — and just go by that to see exactly how much further into manufacturing certain products that I will go, so that’s why we’re calling it a pre-launch,” Hammer explains. “There’s no better place in the world to launch lime green and hot pink, et cetera products, right? And it’s vacation land and one of the most beautiful places in the world.”

Items available as part of the pre-launch include acrylic trays in a variety of vibrant designs sporting flamingos, stars and dog bones; stationary printed in-house with uplifting messages such as “hammered … but not defeated;” dinnerware sets with serving trays, dinner plates and salad plates; stretchable turtlenecks in colorful camos and black; lucite bracelets engraved with encouraging words of hope, love and peace; and hammered heart necklaces, inspired by that meaningful stone found in Israel, available in silver, gold (yellow, rose and white) and pave diamond.

“I thought it’d be fun to come out with a few products for the home, a few products that women can wear, and see the response,” Hammer says. “And I think it’s super fun to actually be there and speak with the women and talk with them and see what inspires them, what they love about the designs, what they’re most interested in, and we’re going to make it a festive party.”

druville on Tour

Like the WHB pop-up before it, the Southampton pop-up scheduled for July 22–24 at Urban Soul will feature the well-rounded lineup of pre-launch products, frosé machines, cheese platters and more fun. The pop-up is open Friday and Saturday, 5–9 p.m. and Sunday 1–4 p.m.

After the Hamptons stops, the druville tour will pop up in other resort communities including Napa Valley, Pebble Beach, Montecito, Balboa Island, Aspen, Highland Park and Fort Worth before returning to its native Florida for stops in Palm Beach and Ocean Reef in December.

“I hope women get the vision that I’ve got, because it’s all about giving back,” Hammer adds. “That’s really what druville is all about — it’s not about me, it’s not about traveling around — it’s about (saying) ‘let’s do this and let’s help women, and men’ … let’s just help people, because it’s a hurting world and we’re certainly seeing more of that these days.” 

The official druville launch will be announced on Instagram @druville_shop, at which point the online store at druville.com will open for business. To learn more about the Hammered Heart Foundation, visit hammeredheart.org.