The Living Heritage Of France Comes Alive In Paris And Beyond

Fine fragrances, sparkling crystal, superb leather goods, high jewellery, and even Parisian paper are just some of the arts, crafts and professions fashioned and played out in France, and even in Paris itself.

- Patricia Valicenti

“Glass is a marvellous material,” the great glass and jewellery designer Réné Lalique would say. And today the name of Lalique evokes the sparkle of jewellery and the brilliance of crystal. As the jeweller’s passion for glass grew he sought to find an appropriate location in an area with a workforce qualified in the field. This led him to eastern France, to Alsace, a region with a strong and historic glassmaking tradition where he founded his glassworks in 1921 in the town of Wingen-sur-Moden and where they are still located to this day, the only Lalique manufacture in the world, and where the homeware collections, crystal jewellery and the special commissions are fashioned. Recent collections include the Flûte Enchantée (The Magic Flute) fine jewellery collection celebrating the National Opera of Paris, with themes revolving around Mozart’s last opera with its pieces centred on crystal cabochons.

The high jewellery pieces and jewellery pieces by jeweller and gemmologist Brigitte Ermel are fashioned in her workshop on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris where no less than 15 jewellery craftsmen work with her as the pieces take shape. The house of Brigitte Ermel Paris was founded in 1992, and the jeweller, a trained gemmologist works with rare and exceptional stones, favouring colours that are intense. She uses stones that she hand picks herself as the centrepieces of her works, which draw inspiration from nature and its elements and talisman and their magic powers. Earrings in rubellite, diamonds and yellow gold and a matching cocktail ring in the same materials are among her creations. The designer also fashions pieces for men like a pair of cufflinks in diamonds and white gold and a matching tie clip.