Belperron
Belperron is a Parisian brand, born in 1941 thanks to the care of Suzanne Belperron.
The birth of the brand
Suzanne Belperron (1900 – 1983), born in Saint-Claude, in West France, graduated at École des Beaux Arts, in Besançon; then, in 1919, she moved to Paris, where she started working as designer and illustrator at maison Boivin, whose appearance she contributed to renovate.
In 1932 pearls and gems merchant Bernard Herz asked her to design jewels exclusively for his company. Suzanne managed to impress a new look to jewelry, making it sensual, tactile and surprisingly modern, so her success came immediately: in 1934 her creations had already appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris and, in following years, she had important clients, such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Wallis Simpson and Diana Vreeland.
In 1942, 9 years after she entered the company, Suzanne acquired the brand by Bernard Herz (who, two years later, was deported and killed by nazi regime) and renamed it Suzanne Belperron. In 1945, when Jean Herz, son of Bernard, went back to France, she offered him his father’s company; Jean, in exchange, made her au pair business partner of the newborn Jean Herz – Suzanne Belperron.
In 1974, after many years of success and the designation of Knight of the Legion of Honor (1963), partners decided to retire and close the brand. After that year fame and memory of the designer decreased little by little, at least until the end of the century.
The rebirth in America
In 1999 Ward Landrigam, owner of Verdura, acquired exclusive rights all over the world to access to more than 9200 sketches included in the archives of the maison; then he started a research and valorization project which was supported, in 2007, by the discovery of its archive and concluded, in 2015, with the reopening of the brand, in New York: here a huge selection of vintage archive jewels is presented and new ones are created, even starting from Madame Belperron’s sketches.
Belperron style
Since the ’20s, Suzanne Belperron had created jewels which were considered revolutionary, because of the frequent use of geometric shapes, unusual combination, such as the one between rock crystal and golden metal, and the use of neglected materials, such as chalcedony, quartz and carnelian. Her inspiration often came from nature, even if there were Eastern influences too. She always refused to sign her jewels, because she said her sign was her style, characterized by unique elegance and peculiarity.
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Contacts
745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1210, New York, NY
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