I recently spent 48 hours in the City of Light with Mauboussin, visiting several of the brand’s stores, attending a launch party for its new collections and squeezing in a little sightseeing on the side.
So, why not make a trip to the city where the brand got its start?
Mauboussin is a French heritage brand that traces its beginnings back 186, years, to 1827, and is the second oldest of the “big five” jewelers with shops on Paris’ famed Place Vendôme. The only one of the big five that has had a shop on the plaza longer is Chaumet, which opened there around 1800, followed by Mauboussin, Cartier (1847), Boucheron (around 1853) and Van Cleef & Arpels (around 1900).
The brand still has a store on this historic square today, and that was our first stop Monday morning. The Place Vendôme, as the brand’s North American CEO Thierry Chaunu (who should consider a second career as a tour guide in Paris) told me, was erected during the reign of Louis XIV.
Napoleon later built the large column, fittingly named the Vendôme Column, in the middle, crafting it from the cannons of armies he conquered, and topping it off with a likeness of none other than himself.
Thierry Chaunu takes a peek at the window displays at the Mauboussin store on the Place Vendôme, left; a view of the plaza from the shop.
Each Mauboussin store, Chaunu said, has a completely different look and feel. The inside of the store on the Place Vendôme was very urban-chic, with exposed brick that reminded me of the all the cool Brooklyn apartments I can’t afford, with graffiti on one of the walls.
The store also had a display case that ran the length of a single room and was outfitted with sliding magnifying glasses (pictured above left) that allow shoppers to get a close-up look at diamonds of varying sizes, colors and clarities, from around a half-carat to about 2 carats.
The next stop on our tour, so to speak, was the Mauboussin store on the Champs-Élysées, one of the most well-known streets in the world.
At the western end of the avenue stands the Arc de Triomphe, which honors those who fought and died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and underneath, Chaunu told
me, is a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.
Selfie, Paris-style
The brand is attempting to take a bit of a step down from the pedestal of high joailliere to create pieces that appeal to, and are affordable for, female self-purchasers. I have to say, I liked what I saw.
These Premier Jour rings and station necklace in 18-karat white gold (above, as seen in the window of the Mauboussin store on the Champs-Élysées) are well-priced and fashionable. I could see them selling here in the U.S. market.
After leaving the store, a couple of us headed to Boulevard Saint-Germaine for lunch at Café de Flore, a popular hangout (that’s now more of a tourist trap) for a number of late writers, including Ernest Hemingway.
Hemingway wrote about Café de Flore in A Moveable Feast, his memoir of his time in Paris with his first wife, Hadley Richardson, and his then-young son, whom they called Bumby.
I had a little time to myself after lunch and strolled along the Seine, perusing the used book and art stalls, before heading back to the hotel for the Mauboussin launch party that evening at Le Grand Rex, a circa 1932 theater.
The party began with the screening of the brand’s new commercial followed by a presentation of new collections by Mauboussin President Alain Nemarq.
Nemarq showed new pieces from a number of lines, including one called First Madams, which was inspired by an American friend of the designer’s.
Following the presentation was a surprise screening of Blue Jasmine. Though I was sad to leave the City of Light, watching a Woody Allen movie was the perfect sendoff for my return trip to New York.
Jusqu’à la prochaine fois, Paris.
Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.
