Maison Mellerio dits Mellerio is the jeweller of great tradition. Since 1613, through its saga, heritage, expertise and prestigious clientele, it has embodied the history of French jewelry. Mellerio’s integrity, independence and authentic vision of its craft enable it to take a tailor-made approach to the needs and desires of precious, timeless objects dedicated to life’s important moments. Mellerio nurtures a trusting, unique and lasting relationship with its customers, who assert their difference by refusing the dictates of the zeitgeist.
2015 marks an important year for the Maison, that of an anniversary. Exactly 200 years ago, François Mellerio was the first jeweler to open his establishment on rue de la Paix. He would be followed many years later by the other greats of the industry, creating the international renown of the Place Vendôme district, now the capital of Haute Joaillerie.
Mellerio dits Meller has always had close ties with the fashion world. In the 1950s, the company worked with such great names as Cristobal Balenciaga, Marcel Rochas, Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain, dressing their models for fashion shows. This year, Mellerio continues and deepens its privileged relationship with the Couture world by offering an artistic collaboration to one of its most talented representatives.
Having cut his teeth at Thierry Mugler and Jean-Paul Gaultier, French designer Alexandre Vauthier decided to launch his own label in 2009. A regular guest of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, in January 2015 he became a Permanent Member. A virtuoso cutter and master of materials, the designer chose to take on a new challenge: to create Haute Joaillerie pieces, with its own particular demands and know-how. Thus was born the collaboration between Alexandre Vauthier and Mellerio dits Meller.
“It’s always been a childhood dream to imagine and follow the development of a Haute Joaillerie collection,” confides Alexandre Vauthier.
In September 2014, Alexandre Vauthier discovered the Maison Mellerio, its archives and workshop. He was struck by the creativity and breadth of unique savoir-faire of this four-hundred-year-old Maison, the last independent, family-run business on Place Vendôme. This encounter will mark an unprecedented collaboration between the youngest accredited member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture and the oldest jewelry house in the world.
“Our two seemingly distant Maisons immediately found each other around shared values of love of the craft, independence and creativity,” emphasizes Gilles Haumont, Managing Director of Mellerio International.
The archives, carefully preserved since 1776, immediately inspired the designer. In particular, he focused on a series of brooches dating from the 19th century, a drawing of a river of shuttles and a gouache of an architectural bracelet from the 1970s. The designer drew the entire collection in one stroke: four Haute Joaillerie pieces and three Joaillerie pieces, which will be developed and marketed from September 2015.
Fascinated by the emerald, Mellerio’s fetish stone, Alexandre Vauthier wanted to make it the “green” thread of the collection. Resolutely elegant, graphic and contemporary, this collection highlights the precision of the designer’s style and the savoir-faire of Maison Mellerio: supple, mobile and transformable jewelry. Structured as a vanishing line, the links of the pieces in the Haute Joaillerie collection form a succession of “Vs”, the designer’s initial. It was only when the pieces were being made by the head of the workshop that the “V” was revealed to form the “M” of Mellerio, marking a predestined collaboration!
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