From January 27 to 29, 2015
Paris, France
Photo Credits: Amélie Letourneurs & Darren Gerrish
January 2015 - January 2025: Ten years separate our inaugural collection Mécaniques Célestes from that of Liaisons Dangereuses: an anniversary collection which we are presenting alongside a selection from the Métamorphose line, at Christie's auction house, Avenue Matignon, on January 27, 28, and 29.
After a decade marked by collections which have transcended time and space (from the infinity of the universe to the Arthurian legends, passing through a timeless bestiary), I am now making a stop in the Age of Enlightenment.
Did someone say Enlightenment? My response is: Diamonds!
For it is indeed the diamond of which we speak: the dazzling heart of my voyage to Cythera. That ancient diamond whose imperfect, hand-cut shape gives it such a distinctive, seductive, and moving brilliance.
As I contemplated these stones, which had adorned countless other jewelry and given luster to countless former wearers, I embarked on an inner journey that brought me back to my first loves…The stones’ imagined history transported me back to the 18th century I used to dream about in my childhood, when life was elsewhere and I spent long hours drawing detailed pleasure palaces and impeccably manicured gardens and groves.
In my reverie, these precious stones led me into those imaginary palaces, opening the doors to their gilded salons, where, at dusk, the chandeliers twinkle, illuminate, and finally bathe the room in a shimmering, flattering light which the mirrors reflect back into infinity...
It was from this dream that the Liaisons Dangereuses collection was born.
From that minuet of light and gold, I crafted the settings for my eternal diamonds. Set atop a netting of aged, diamond-studded silver veiling a concave golden mirror, or dotting a rock crystal, they float in a play of reflections that beguile the senses.
From those French gardens and their intricate wrought iron gates, I fashioned the framework for my trompe-l’œil motifs. Neatly embroidered patterns of flowerbeds and spirals of wrought iron inspired an airy structure made of silver bands accented with gold and diamonds.
From the salons to the gardens, thus united, came chandelier earrings, fleur-de-lis brooches, mesh cuffs, and oblong rings.
I dream of these precious jewels adorning the fingers of the Marquise de Merteuil or Blondie, the neck of Cécile de Volanges or Edwige Belmore, the wrist of Madame de Tourvel or Siouxsie, the lapel of the Viscount de Valmont or Joe Strummer, in a Paris that is effervescent, strident, swirling.
Echoing the antique diamonds used in the new “Liaisons Dangereuses” collection, we also present Métamorphoses: a selection of custom pieces created over the past decade, which I made out of antique jewellery. For jewellery is a matter of heritage.
It travels through generations, sometimes centuries, and tells the story of its time, of loved ones, glorious ancestors, happy moments… A piece of jewellery is a valuable, but also and above all, a sentimental object. From one era to the next, it morphs under the influence of trends, circumstance, and designers.
Enamored of history and travels through time, I have from the start been dedicated to transforming the jewelry of yesterday into the jewelry of today.
It has been a creative exercise of generative constraints, where my approach, at once aesthetic and ethical, has turned each creation into a unique and personalized object.
A game of transformation that I play differently depending on the piece in question. I might take a more classic approach, recycling the stones, unsetting them from the original jewellery to bring them back to life in a new custom-made piece. Or I might take a more performative approach–a challenge–in which the original piece remains intact within a newborn contemporary hybrid creation.
The pieces presented here all come out of this sparkling sleight of hand. Created during this first decade, these special commissions tell the story of an instinct and desire to blur the lines, to respect the world and its environment, to play with eras and styles in order to bring forth a new and contemporary beauty.
