Translated by Bethszabee Garner

Female designers in jewellery

The hushed world of jewellery is undergoing a velvet revolution. Discreetly but surely, the world of jewellery is becoming more feminine, putting an end to a curious paradox: although worn by women, jewels have almost always been created by men. For more than twenty years, a large number of female designers have now been stepping into the spotlight. Whether working within their own companies or serving as artistic directors for large corporations, each one brings a fresh perspective to the jewellery of today and tomorrow.

The pioneers were Jeanne Toussaint and Suzanne Belperron. The former, who was once Louis Cartier's partner, remained Cartier's artistic director until 1970. Indomitable and avant-garde, the designer, nicknamed La Panthère, made her passion for colour combinations, flexibility, reliefs and motifs inspired by fauna and flora the key to success for the prestigious house. The second worked alongside the widow of jeweller René Boivin. Particularly innovative, she contributed to the brand's reputation. But wishing to create her own collections, she joined forces in 1932 with Bernard Herz, who gave her complete creative freedom. A few decades later, Place Vendôme is populated by women.

Artistic directors

Victoire de Castellane has been designing Dior jewellery for over twenty years. This aristocratic rocker with such a unique yet quintessentially French taste is responsible for designing unique pieces of fine jewellery worth several hundred thousand euros, as well as everyday jewellery that appeals to the masses. She spent fourteen years working with Karl Lagerfeld, designing Chanel's costume jewellery, from the most demure to the most extravagant.

At Dior, she embarked on a new project, with a clean slate. Victoire de Castellane has moved away from rather bourgeois, conformist and even conservative jewellery based on the four pillars of diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, reintroducing forgotten stones in unexpected colours. In each collection, she mixes opals and beryls with diamonds or rubies. And she doesn't skimp on the use of lacquer in almost fluorescent shades.

With her Latin sophistication, Lucia Silvestri is the creative director and stone buyer for Bvlgari. She is the first woman to be promoted in this Roman temple of fine jewellery founded by men... This sparkling woman with clear eyes began her career in the jeweller's gemmology department at the age of just 18. She fell in love, she says, ‘with the colours, variety and energy that I felt emanating from the gems’. She then decided to abandon her biology studies to devote herself to stones. The brothers Nicola and Paolo Bulgari, recognising her immense potential, decided to pass on their knowledge to her. Everything happened very quickly after that. Her love of stones and her creative flair – she knows better than anyone how to combine colours to create stunning jewellery sets – were rewarded. Travelling the globe in search of exceptional gems, she confides: "One of the first things I learned was how to select and acquire unique and special stones that I could use. The inspiration for creating a piece comes tirelessly from the gems I discover.‘

When she is not in Jaipur or Sri Lanka, Lucia Silvestri spends all her time in the ’gem office" located in the Bvlgari building in Rome. In this room, she ‘talks to the stones,’ touching them constantly, surrounded by an immense table covered with exceptional sapphires, amethysts, peridots, citrines and rubellites, drawings of future jewellery pieces and trays filled with jewellery sets.

Boucheron is driven by the creativity of a woman. Claire Choisne has been its artistic director since 2011. A graduate of the Rue du Louvre school, she set up her own business before joining the team of jeweller Lorenz Baümer in 2001 to take charge of the design studio. At Boucheron, she has chosen to place boldness at the heart of her work. Constantly seeking new techniques, she approached NASA to capture air in an aerogel on a piece of jewellery, and called on Saint-Gobain, which succeeded in draping rainbows in precious metals using a powder composed of metal oxides, silver and titanium, sprayed onto white ceramic or rock crystal. Claire Choisne is also exploring new stylistic territory for Quatre and Serpent Bohème, the house's iconic jewellery pieces.

The gilded salons of Place Vendôme are now shining the spotlight on Olga Corsini and Nathalie Verdeille. The former works at Chaumet as director of the design studio. Her expert eye – she previously worked for Bvlgari and De Beers – seeks to highlight the exceptional craftsmanship of the French jeweller's workshops. She is responsible for the Bee line, which revisits the Bee My Love line she designed several years ago. She intertwines the symbolism of power conveyed by Napoleonic motifs such as bees and wheat with the evocation of the lightness of nature, a theme dear to Chaumet.

Since 2021 and her appointment as artistic director of jewellery and fine jewellery at Tiffany & Co., Nathalie Verdeille has had one foot in New York and the other in Paris, which she visits once a month to meet with artisans and monitor the progress of the collections. Having started out with Lorenz Baümer when he was secretly working on the Chanel Joaillerie collections, then spending many years at Cartier, she is driven by a great sensitivity that she translates into birds perched on large stones, necklaces forming waves of foam, sea urchin rings and starfish pendants, These are the signature pieces of Blue Book 2025, the latest high jewellery collection from Tiffany & Co. As with the two previous collections, it follows in the footsteps of the talented Jean Schlumberger, who wrote the golden age of the American jeweller in the 1960s and 1970s.

Jewellery as a legacy

Caroline Scheufele, co-director with her brother of the Chopard label, is also the artistic director of the women's jewellery and fine jewellery collections. A true pioneer, she was the first to partner with the Cannes Film Festival to create its Palme d'Or in 2013, which has since become a Fairmined palm made from eco-friendly gold, now used for all jewellery adorned with the world's most beautiful stones.

More than just a woman, she is a member of the family who now sets the tone at Fred. After a brilliant career at Lalique and Swarovski, Valérie Samuel, vice-president, artistic director of the house and granddaughter of founder Fred Samuel, is returning home. Whether by stroke of genius or luck, while researching the company's heritage in preparation for an exhibition, she learned that a rare 101.57-carat fancy intense yellow diamond had reappeared on the market. She bought it for the second time. For the record, the ‘Soleil d'Or’ is a gem that her grandfather discovered in 1977 and which then disappeared into private collections for forty-five years.

Family ties are also important at Repossi. Jewellery designer Gaia Repossi took over as artistic director of the family business at the age of just 21. She has turned the rules of jewellery-making on their head, making diamonds float with her ‘Serti sur vide’ collection, an ode to simplicity and architecture. Perfect harmony is the key to the success of the Antifer line, which forms a point and stacks in an asymmetrical rhythm.

The independents

With their eponymous labels, Valérie Messika and Marie Poniatowski, founder of Stone Paris, are celebrating twenty years of creation this year. For two decades, they have been taking a fresh look at diamonds. When they started out, they wanted jewellery that was free and far removed from the somewhat outdated codes of the Place Vendôme. They imagined diamond jewellery with a more airy design and a bold style. Their creations, which can be worn from morning to night, appeal to a multitude of women who treat themselves to jewellery in the same way they would buy a fashion accessory such as a handbag or a pair of shoes.

The brunette Valérie has enjoyed global success with Move: mobile diamonds set in a rounded structure. Alongside her everyday lines, she embarked on the adventure of fine jewellery ten years ago.

Blonde Marie transposes the jewellery expertise of centuries past into contemporary creations. Her best seller, Blood Diamonds, is a cross. Inspired by medieval crosses, particularly that of Saint James, its dagger shape moves away from religious connotations and recalls the film of the same name. This piece of jewellery points the finger at the failure to comply with ethical, social and environmental standards in the diamond supply chain. Its name caused quite a stir when it was launched.

There is also the Yasmine collection, named after her niece, and the Tess and Sarah rings, a tribute to her daughter and sister. The latter is inspired by a Victorian brooch, as Marie Poniatowski is passionate about antique jewellery. The Gilda ring, in a very Art Deco style, is hugely successful with its mix of baguette and round-cut gems.To celebrate her company's two decades in business, she has created a collection combining emeralds and diamonds.

Marie-Hélène de Taillac and Isabelle Langlois are passionate about colour. The former's creations have won over customers with their rainbow of gemstones cut and set in India. It all began in 1996 in a workshop at the Gem Palace in Jaipur. It was in this legendary place, which has been supplying maharajas and prominent Indian families with extravagant jewellery for over a century and a half, that she shook up the somewhat staid Parisian jewellery scene. There, she had her jewellery made, set with stones in a thousand mesmerising shades. Her XL tourmaline rings, earrings and necklaces set with multicoloured briolettes, and brushed gold bangles studded with rubellites or spinels have their fans.

The granddaughter and daughter of Jura gem cutters, Isabelle Langloi is the jeweller of colour. In her boutique at 29 Rue Danielle Casanova, decorated in red and purple velvet (her signature colours), her rings, pendants, bracelets and earrings showcase precious gems in a thousand and one mesmerising shades, such as the Ardèche cuff, the Émotion ring and the Éden earrings.

With an ultra-contemporary aesthetic, Amélie Huynh, founder of Statement, has made silver mixed with diamonds her signature. Her creations evoke a mysterious chiaroscuro. The Meaningful Beauties collection breaks the codes of fine jewellery with rings. Crafted from silver, diamonds and coloured stones, they are a cross between Art Deco sophistication and brutalist architecture, avant-garde and free-spirited pieces faithful to the brand's iconic craftsmanship. Her first My Way rings and Anyway earrings return in new variations thanks to a deluge of diamond pendants, highlighted by a burst of lacquer and mounted on silver and/or rose gold.

After studying entrepreneurship in Boston, Camille Parruitte launched Nouvel Héritage in 2015. Her creations are studded with technical innovations. The Latch collection, for example, is inspired by the world of streetwear: on yellow or rose gold chains of prodigious fluidity, featuring strikingly realistic trainers laces, are strung pavé pendants that resemble sweatshirt cord locks. For the tenth anniversary of her brand, she is trying her hand at fine jewellery with, among other things, the new Try Me line.

An article by Fabrice Léonard, from issue 13 of OniriQ magazine.