A new guard is carving out space among Place Vendôme’s jewellery stalwarts

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By Laure Guilbault

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In the back of the courtyard at 416 rue Saint-Honoré, a stone’s throw from Paris’s historic jewellery square Place Vendôme, is the Rouvenat showroom. The 19th-century brand was revived last year by Luximpact, a holding company created in April 2020 by former Cartier executives. Rouvenat is a modern take on traditional fine jewellery — the brand only uses stones extracted more than five years ago so as to not further deplete finite resources — and standout creations include the Bolt necklace, made of blackened silver and rose gold, spinel and diamonds (€20,000).

“We want to change the codes of the industry thanks to innovation and create ethical and circular jewellery,” says Frédéric de Narp, who co-founded Luximpact with Coralie de Fontenay. (De Narp’s previous positions include president and CEO of Harry Winston and president and CEO of Cartier North America, while de Fontenay was managing director of Cartier France.)

The new Rouvenat is part of a wave of new-age jewellers that has emerged in Paris in the last five years, both created from scratch (such as Viltier, Mazarin and Emmanuel Tarpin) or revivals like Rouvenat and Vever. Some use old stones. Some use lab-grown diamonds, a space dominated by young brands, including Courbet and Mazarin, while big players have largely stayed away. Each offers a new take on fine jewellery, which has been long defined by historic labels and traditional codes. Can these upstarts ride early momentum to become established jewellery houses in their own right without the firepower of the big groups?

Emmanuel Tarpin jellyfish brooch.

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The pandemic played a role in the emergence of new labels, says Alain Bernard, founder and CEO of investor and leadership consultancy Abbey Road Advisory and the former CEO of Richemont North America. “During Covid, business shifted online, and new brands seized the opportunity to launch on e-commerce platforms, supported by a smart strategy on social media, notably Instagram,” he explains. “But the customer acquisition cost has surged since the pandemic. This has led to a Darwinian struggle among brands.”

There is a flurry of challenges, including access to stones and ateliers — manufacturers are running at full capacity for big houses, leaving little room for smaller brands — and the rising cost of doing business.

Brands with a true artistic identity are better positioned for survival, according to Bernard. He points to Messika, which, on top of being a diamond specialist, is reinventing some branding and creative codes of jewellery. Founded in 2005, Messika recorded sales of $234 million in 2022 (up from $140 million in 2018), according to Morgan Stanley estimates. “Messika is the success story of recent years, thanks to a series of nice design moves that the founders pulled off,” says Bernard. He also cites men’s jeweller Le Gramme, of which he is a board member, as another success due to its sharp design concepts (think of the ribbon bracelet or the rings named after their weight).

Brands are boosted by the dynamism of the sector: jewellery (both branded and unbranded) is expected to grow 5 to 7 per cent on a CAGR between 2023 and 2026, according to a BCG study that also notes that jewellery is seen as an investment and has strong appeal for young generations. In 2022, jewellery had the lowest share of branded products (40 per cent) among all luxury categories, according to Morgan Stanley. Branded jewellery will continue to gain shares from unbranded jewellery (sold via local jewellers) at a pace of about 1 per cent per year, Morgan Stanley says. ”It’s a co-conquest,” says Stanislas de Quercize, referring to big and small players. De Quercize is a board member, president and founder of family office SAVIH and a former CEO of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Mazarin’s elephant manchette.

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Could newcomers be acquired by the luxury conglomerates? “It is difficult for the large groups to tackle small businesses,” says Bernard. “They tend to want to use the recipes of the big brands while integrating these small brands into structures that are sometimes too costly and not suited.” Meanwhile, private equity has not focused its attention on jewellery brands, at least not in the luxury segment. (There are examples in the affordable end of the market, such as Felix Capital investing in Mejuri and Red Luxury backing Ginette NY.) “Private equity tends to look for very strong quick growth while jewellery is more a long-term business with steady growth,” Luximpact’s de Fontenay explains.

Laurent Droin, head of Eurazeo brands EMEA, cites three factors why private equity doesn’t back fine jewellery: “First, there’s an issue of differentiation: does the client really come for the brand or a specific product and a certain price point? Secondly, investors always think of the exit strategy when it comes to hard luxury. There aren’t many strategic investors apart from LVMH and Richemont. Last but not least, it’s not a business model that’s easy to scale in the luxury segment since it’s a model based on stocks, therefore, cash intensive. You need a lot of cash if you want to buy precious stones and open physical stores.”

Rouvenat's Bolt Imperatrice necklace.

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De Narp and de Fontenay have raised money from business angels and family offices for Luximpact’s brands Rouvenat and Oscar Massin and Vever in a joint venture with the Vever family. They say overcoming these challenges involves establishing a longstanding relationship with the ateliers, having stones entrusted to you by stone dealers instead of buying the stock and choosing real estate that offers an experience but in a location off the beaten path. At the Rouvenat showroom, clients can meet the artistic director Sandrine de Laage and gemologist Claire Portais, who help them pick their own stones.

To overcome the challenge of the ateliers being taken over by big brands, Courbet co-founder Manuel Mallen says that the brand recently took a share in an atelier in Lyon. (Courbet, whose showroom is located on 7 Place Vendôme, received an investment from Chanel when it launched in 2018.)

Mazarin co-founders Louise de Rothschild and Keagan Ramsamy say another challenge is the resistance to lab-grown diamonds. “We need to educate people and convey the right message,” says de Rothschild. Ramsamy says Mazarin has a “pacifist approach” to lab-grown diamonds and notes that the brand’s bridal clientele comes primarily for the lab-grown diamonds, while its other pieces, such as the manchette featuring the brand’s signature elephant, attract clients who are also traditional jewellery houses’ clients.

Viltier Manchette Edge diamants won a Couture Design Award in Las Vegas in June 2023.

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For its part, Viltier has not been seeking to disrupt the jewellery playbook, establishing its Magnetic unisex range largely on social media, focusing on design (the Viltier Manchette Edge diamants won a Couture Design Award in Las Vegas this year) and developing bridal and high jewellery.

Do new brands have to aspire to become much bigger houses? Emmanuel Tarpin has no intention to scale: after starting his career in Van Cleef & Arpels’s high jewellery atelier, he launched his namesake brand in December 2017 at age 25. He regularly visits miners searching for opal stones in Mexico or emeralds in Columbia. “The idea is to understand the work conditions of miners, learn about the environmental aspects and understand all the steps,” he says. He creates unique pieces mostly for collectors (around 20 pieces per year) and doesn’t go after red-carpet moments, though Rihanna has worn his seashell earrings. His goal is to be able to continue to create his “sculptures to wear” and maintain the intimate relationship with his clients. “[Jewellery as an art] is a niche market that has always existed,” he says. In that regard, he follows the path of JAR (Joel Arthur Rosenthal), the renowned American jeweller who made discretion its trademark.

Emmanuel Tarpin regularly visits miners searching for gemstones.

Whatever your business model is, Bernard says, creativity is key: “In jewellery, if you do too much marketing, you can lose your soul. What's a piece of jewellery without a soul?”

Key takeaway: Young jewellery brands or recently revived brands have emerged during the pandemic when business shifted online. They are updating the traditional fine jewellery playbook by using old stones or lab-grown diamonds, without reinventing the wheel completely. They are facing a flurry of challenges, starting with production. Their relatively small sizes make them unlikely targets for big groups for the time being. But with a unique offer and identity, they’ve proven they can attract investors and scale.

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