PARIS — For jeweler Fred, all the pieces comes right down to gentle, befitting its “sunshine jeweler” moniker.
This 12 months, it’s the home’s “first gentle” that impressed the most recent excessive jewellery designs unveiled in Could, with a crimson carpet debut on the likes of French actresses Mélanie Laurent and Joséphine Japy in the course of the 78th Cannes Movie Competition.
However at a preview in Paris in April, vp and inventive director Valérie Samuel revealed it was not one however two distinct aspects the 19-piece excessive jewellery lineup explored.
Necklace from the 1936 assortment, in white gold, set with a 7.13-carat Ceylon sapphire and diamonds.
Courtesy of Fred
“The 2 collections full one another by evoking two emblematic moments which have formed Fred [as] the sunshine jeweler — the beginning of the home in 1936 and the radiance of the ‘Soleil d’Or’ diamond,” she stated.
For the primary, it’s coloured stones, pearls and a contact of Artwork Deco which are the bedrock of “1936,” a nod to the second the place an enterprising 28-year-old named Fred Samuel arrange on Rue Royale as a jeweler.
Interval-typical arches, evoking the arcade architectural function of this tony Parisian avenue, had been figured within the waterfall of grain- and claw-set diamonds central motif of an articulated necklace completed with a 7.13-carat Royal Blue cushion-cut sapphire from Sri Lanka.
Necklace from the 1936 assortment, in white gold, set with a 3.63-carat Mozambique ruby and diamonds.
Courtesy of Fred
Comparable diamond-set interlaced motifs lead the attention towards the three.63-carat pigeon blood Mozambique ruby heart stone of a choker necklace. They can be discovered on one other mannequin that includes a 4.24-carat Colombian emerald.
In the meantime, the pearls with a fragile rosy sheen used for an extended sautoir type recalled the hue the younger entrepreneur had developed by means of a relationship with Mikimoto.
In “Soleil d’Or Dawn,” yellow diamonds are the celebs of the present, for 9 creations evoking the unique “Soleil d’Or” stone.
Ball ring from the Soleil d’Or Dawn assortment, in white gold, set with a 1.01-carat diamond and diamonds; and Stackable ring from the Soleil d’Or Dawn assortment, in white and yellow gold, set with a 1.01-carat diamond and diamonds.
Courtesy of Fred
That is the 101.57-carat vivid intense yellow diamond now in the home patrimony.
In 1977, the home founder’s son Henri Samuel purchased and offered within the house for a number of weeks, preserving the yellow diamond simply lengthy sufficient for 3 issues: to make it the centerpiece of a short exhibition at its Parisian flagship; have it immortalized within the fingers of Margaux Hemingway; and to provide it its identify, as a result of its vivid completely satisfied hue reminded him of the sunshine on the Riviera that the household patriarch so cherished. The home repurchased it in 2021.
Rays of sunshine appear to radiate from the two.01-carat fancy intense yellow diamond on a bib necklace that drapes across the neck. Every department performs on the refined distinction introduced by the combination of grain-set yellow stones and claw-set white ones, softening the geometric bursting design. Plus brilliant-cut diamonds are positioned in such a manner that their curve additionally performs into the design.
Necklace from the 1936 assortment, in white gold, set with a 4.24-carat Colombian emerald and diamonds.
Courtesy of Fred
Elsewhere, it’s the play of yellow and white gold with white diamonds that telegraphs that concept of radiance on, say, a hoop that espouses the form of the finger.
Regardless of being two distinct tales, the ensemble is “an expression of the Fred type, with this concord, this duality between the natural and the graphic,” stated Valérie Samuel.
And if 19 items appears like an unusually small proposal when others unveil hundreds-strong collections, it’s what suits this jeweler.
“We’ve got chosen to speak in regards to the totally different [facets] of Monsieur Fred’s persona and moments of his life,” stated chief govt officer Vincent Reynes. “We want to do much less however make sure that the message is all of the clearer.”
Bib necklace from the Soleil d’Or Dawn assortment, in white and yellow gold, set with a 2.01 “Fancy Intense Yellow” diamond and yellow and white diamonds.
Courtesy of Fred
In a market the place competitors is fierce, providing targeted collections with a exact theme is essential to standing out and catching the attention. In any case, “there’s no luxurious with out tales,” so far as the manager is anxious.
The one the Parisian jeweler desires to proceed burnishing is that whereas Fred presents fashionable high quality jewellery items like its bestselling Force10 bracelets, excessive jewellery is its forte from the get-go.
Tapping the early years of the model — right here or in earlier collections that alighted on Fred Samuel’s youth — are the perfect approach to materialize the intersection of “the previous, what makes the home, creativity and its future,” stated the manager. “That stress is extraordinarily fascinating to us.”
The strategy has served Fred effectively.
Though Reynes declined to reveal any figures, he stated excessive jewellery was one of many classes rising the quickest for the French jeweler, which is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
And that’s not simply good for enterprise.
“There’s a really excessive demand from high-potential shoppers who’re extraordinarily essential for luxurious homes,” the manager stated. “Not solely as a result of they purchase but additionally as a result of they push to create extra and higher.”
