The French jewelry industry owes its notoriety both to the excellence of its fine jewelry and to the inventiveness of the fantasy segment. Between the two, traditional houses and a myriad of small designers manage to do well. The field of possibilities thus broadens to all consumer styles. Some accumulate iconic jewelry from major brands, as if to identify with a social belonging that reassures them. Others prefer to stand out by wearing a piece with a singular design, generally worn asymmetrically, or even solo. Some people still imagine new ways of combining materials and shapes. If they transgress the codes somewhat, their posture nevertheless retains a certain sense of derision. In fact, each contributes to redefining the standards of timelessness.
Artistic heritage is not just a simple transmission of family assets. As soon as the children of the founder of a brand have been immersed in jewelry since childhood, one of them – often the daughter – naturally feels invested with the mission of perpetuating the name. The result is a new form of creative beauty, a synthesis of two talents with similar or radically different personalities. Far from colliding, the achievements of the father and daughter respond to each other, complement each other to finally blend together and thus perpetuate the house spirit.
Since Buccellati’s birth in Milan in 1919, no designer from outside the family has ever been solicited. Over four generations, creativity has naturally been passed down from father to son, then from father to daughter: from Mario Buccellati to his heir Gianmaria, then to Andrea who today collaborates with her own daughter Lucrezia. While Maria Cristina, Andrea’s sister, heads the global communications department.
Last June, Buccellati’s retrospective exhibition was held in Venice. The prince of goldsmiths, rediscovering the classics. Among the treasures presented, a series of brooches on the theme of the butterfly illustrates this artistic transmission: works created by Mario in 1950, Gianmaria in 1993, Andrea in 1995, up to the contemporary creation of Lucrezia, in homage to the main house techniques gold openwork like tulle.
A compatriot of the Buccellati, Pasquale Bruni is originally from Valenza, one of the cradles of Italian jewelry, where he founded the brand in his name in 1967, at the age of 20. Over the last two decades, since his daughter Eugenia took over as artistic director, the style of the collections has evolved. Trained in drawing, the latter mainly learned the art of jewelry by observing each stage of jewelry making in the family workshops. To the point of breathing a new direction into the creations signed Pasquale Bruni, now more colorful and feminine, more in touch with nature, imbued with sensuality and a form of spirituality.
Exceptional pieces
In the Messika family, filial transmission is also exemplary. Until 2005, this name represented above all a diamond trading company, renowned among professionals since the 1970s, with André at its head. At that time, no one imagined that their daughter would, at the age of 22, found a brand which, today, is one of the classic houses of Place Vendôme. Then Valérie would open three Parisian boutiques on rue Saint-Honoré, rue de la Paix and avenue des Champs-Elysées, where she has also just set up her new offices.
Alberto Repossi and his daughter Gaïa
© / Repossi
When Messika Paris inaugurates its first high jewelry show in 2021 in the Ritz gardens, on opposite sides of the carpet, the daughter and father André face each other: a feeling of mutual pride can be seen in their looks. On the occasion of Paris Fashion Week in September 2024, Messika once again unveils exceptional pieces during a real show, which ends with the presentation of a tie necklace adorned with 232 diamonds, including a 36-carat yellow and a 33 carat white.
This gem is also the favorite stone of the Repossi house, founded in Turin in 1952 by Costantino Repossi. His son Alberto then moved to Monaco in 1979, where he was appointed official jeweler to the Monegasque crown, before arriving at Place Vendôme in 1986. This was precisely the year in which his daughter, Gaia, was born. At 21, she established herself as the artistic director of Repossi. She chooses to abandon opulent and colorful creations for a minimalist and architectural design, mainly in gold and diamonds. Last September, while her father happily used cultured pearls, she tried her hand at the exercise and imagined her first ring where two pearls face a ball set with diamonds.
Gigi Clozeau, on the other hand, has completely freed herself from the style of her father Alain, whose emblematic pieces displayed a refined geometry, in pearly and colored resin, which he combined with gold and diamonds. Based in the south of France, Alain created with his wife Marie. If it was he who imagined the first Gigi necklace, when their daughter was 3 years old, it was on Marie that Gigi Clozeau then relied to give birth to her brand. In contrast to Alain’s sculptural rings, Gigi is launching collections of fine chains, alternating gold links and tiny colored resin beads. And success was immediately achieved.