Every day, at six in the morning, Louis Aragon crossed Paris from Montparnasse to the
Left Bank
, briefcase at the ready, like any representative. Monsieur Triolet, introduced himself. In the suitcase, six felt trays, one on top of the other, ready to be unfolded before buyers from the main fashion houses. The merchandise to be placed was as impossible as it was exceptional: pieces of white horsehair, translucent glass beads, porcelain and twisted cotton covered in pearlescent paint. “Necklaces of snow and dreams”, they said when they were exhibited for the first time in the Hall of the Union of Modern Artists in Paris, in 1929. “These jewels made of nothing”, answered their author, Elsa Triolet, mother of modern jewelry. It was about time that such a contribution was known.
Sakura Earrings by Suzanne Belperron for Bernard Herz. Photo of the book 'Libres et créatrices' (Editions de La Martinière).
Elsa Triolet and Louis Aragon is one of those stories that ignites French national pride.
He, poet, writer, essayist and historian, one of the founders of surrealism, an intellectual of communism, a member of the Resistance during the Nazi occupation.
She, a novelist, journalist and translator, the first writer to win the Goncourt Prize for literature in 1945. They met in 1928, at La Coupole, a
brasserie
where they alternated with Duchamp, Picabia, Kisling, Man Ray and the Delaunay couple, and they were married in 1939. What would be the scope of their romance that even Agnès Varda dedicated a documentary to, Elsa la rose (1966).
What had not been told is that love was so great that he came to renounce his distinguished
nom de guerre
to support her seminal artistic concerns.
Up to now.
“Although her work as a jeweler for Elsa Triolet has a certain impact, in reality almost no one knows the true story.
That is why I wanted to write this book”, says Pauline Castellani, author of
Libres et créatrices: Elles ont inventé le bijou moderne
(Free and creative: they invented the modern jewel), the volume published by La Martinière at the end of last year that, surprisingly, , uncovers jewelry as an ally of women in their fight for equality.
Coco Chanel, in 1935, with the bracelets with the Maltese cross that Fulco di Verdura created for her.
Image of the book 'Libres et créatrices' (Editions de La Martinière).Man Ray
“It was they who put an end to the dictatorship of ostentatious jewelry, heir to the 19th century.
Under her leadership, starting in the mid-twenties, it can be said that jewelry has followed us on our path towards emancipation”, continues Castellani, who speaks of creations designed by women for women, not to be chosen and given by parents. , husbands, lovers or friends.
Line Vautrin, in 1946, with his molding tools. Image of the book 'Libres et créatrices' (Editions de La Martinière).
Among the most significant episodes that
Libres et créatrices
includes , of course, Coco Chanel's disruptive moment with the presentation of her first line of high jewelry, Bijoux de Diamants, in 1932. In the rooms of the designer's apartment, the 47 pieces platinum and diamonds were displayed on wax mannequins, tremendous daring.
Chaumet, Cartier, Mellerio, Mauboussin, Radius and Van Cleef & Arpels, their neighbors in the jewel epicenter of Place Vendôme, responded to the provocation by pressing to prevent not only the sale of the jewels, but also their disassembly.
“This new generation of creators is beginning to eradicate the masculine gaze that has prevailed in the profession, something that feels like a threat,” says Castellani.
Vertèbres necklace by Line Vautrin from the mid-1940s. Image from the book 'Libres et créatrices' (Editions de La Martinière).© 2005 JC MARLAUD
"It has always surprised me that at Van Cleef & Arpels, for example, Renée Puissant is mentioned so little," he continues, referring to the case of the former first creative director of the firm.
Daughter of Alfred van Cleef and Estelle Arpels, Rachel
Renée
Puissant is, indeed, the watchword of the reinvention of the business.
Heading her father's house since 1926, stories about her tend to displace her in favor of René Sim Lacaze, extolled as a genuine designer.
It is said of Puissant that she never learned the trade, that her thing was style and spotting trends;
however, during her leadership and until her premature death (she committed suicide in 1942) technological innovations followed one another, such as the
serti mystérieux
, a technique patented in 1933 that makes the metal on which the precious stones are set invisible.
Castellani takes the opportunity to make visible those pioneers whose names have been buried by the weight of the firms in which they developed their careers.
There is the Belgian Jeanne Toussaint, a model of determination to whom Louis Cartier entrusted the creative direction of high jewelery in 1933. Her extraordinary sense of color, proportion and volume captured for him a new type of client, strong, powerful and Independent.
"She has put jewelry on the path of modernity without sacrificing good taste," the headlines proclaimed.
The signature panther symbol was his creation.
And the dragonflies, the birds of paradise, the flamingos, the
tutti frutti
extravagances and the opulent pieces inspired by the jewelery of the Indian maharajas, a legacy that continued after his retirement in 1970.
Loulou de la Falaise, in 1978, with a necklace gift from Yves Saint Laurent, with whom she collaborated as a jewelry designer. Image of the book 'Libres et créatrices' (Editions de La Martinière).Guy Marineau
Of the same paste was the Swiss Suzanne Belperron, who in 1919, at the age of 23, conquered the Parisian house of René Boiven with her simple shapes and vivid color contrasts.
In magazines, her clips, bracelets, purses and cigarette cases were used over and over again to emphasize Elsa Schiaparelli's clothes.
She allied with Bernard Herz, when the jeweler was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the German concentration camp of Drancy (where he will die in 1943), she managed to save the firm from Nazi looting by taking over the business.
In the ranks of the French Resistance she continued to create even when the Banque de France banned gold trading.
In Karl Lagerfeld she had a devoted admirer and collector.
"These are not jewelers dedicated to beauty, they are creators who respond to the needs of their time, dynamizing the sector with their vision," says Castellani, who cites Line Vautrin and Elsa Triolet as favorites, due to the artistic plus of their pieces: “Both imbued everything they created with poetry”.
"I have endeavored to make necklaces with materials never used before, so that no one would have to teach me the technique," Triolet wrote in
Colliers
de Paris
.
What remains of her work, just 56 pieces, are kept in the Elsa Triolet Library in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, in Normandy.
The poet Louis Aragon with his wife Elsa Triolet.
Image of the book 'Libres et créatrices (Editions de La Martinière). AFP (AFP)
The memory of
Libres et créatrices
it also reaches the following generations that have continued to synchronize jewelry with the socio-cultural and political moment.
In the middle of the second wave of feminism, at the beginning of the seventies, Elsa Peretti and Loulou de la Falaise symbolize this new sensitivity with pieces that embrace every undulation of an increasingly free body.
Starting in the 2000s, the succession was led by the irreverent Victoire de Castellane from Dior, well supported by Marie-Hélène de Taillac, Marion Vidal, Charlotte Chesnais, Valérie Messika, Gaia Repossi, Solange Azagury-Partridge… “Like their elders , have managed to break free from the codes linked to precious stones and the very aesthetics of jewelry, which are still too strict”, concludes the author.
“His is a conquest that has lasted for a century,