Leon Rouvenat.
Unfortunately, the name was only known to a tiny handful of jewelery specialists, who still saw a few treasures passing through the auction room.
And yet, it is to this star jeweler of the Second Empire that we owe having brought together the various trades in a factory that he had set up in rue d'Hauteville in Paris.
Forging the face of contemporary industry to then see its heritage erased by the pangs of time, it is this paradox that seduced the Luximpact team, to whom we already owe having awakened the sleeping beauties Vever or Oscar Massin .
With Marie Berthelon at their side as president of the house, the co-creators of LuxImpact (Coralie de Fontenay, Frédéric de Narp and Sandrine de Laage) spent a year and a half collecting fragments of the forgotten past.
In their possession, some 3,000 gouaches and 12 notebooks found by chance at a Parisian second-hand bookseller, as well as some old finery unearthed at auction, witness to his collaborations with Christofle or his many special orders.
But once this heritage has been brought to light, how can this character be brought up to date?
past found
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Vintage archive.
Rouvenat / Photo press
First, by isolating a stylistic highlight to make it the foundation of the brand.
Before merging this new vision with the taste of the day.
And that's where Sandrine de Laage, artistic director of Luximpact comes in. In her line of sight, the roundness and the tassels that came to punctuate the adornments of the time.
Here are these loops reworked in recycled gold and silver, designed to be worn in accumulation and add charms at will.
But the real charm of Rouvenat lies at the center of each jewel, since the house has chosen to use only old stones, often colored, which have had a first life.
What complicates the work of the workshops which must adapt the setting to the contours of these upcycled gems but which comes to electrify the jewel of
a single presence.
Or a new current, resolutely alternating.
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Token ring in recycled silver and gold, oval peridot, Rouvenat, €2,400.
Available on Rouvenat.com Rouvenat / Photo press