“My Style is My Signature” is a powerful statement by the woman who boldly left her mark in jewelry history: Suzanne Belperron. She is a strong Woman for a number of reasons.
As an unrivalled colourist, the essence of Belperron's work was her ability to play with aesthetic influences from many sources and motifs inspired by nature.Belperron was fascinated by the arts and the distant cultures of Egypt, East India, (the Assyrian civilisation in particular), the Far East (China, Japan), Africa and Oceania. She found inspiration in nature's flora and fauna, from creatures like starfish and insects to minutiae of a garden's flower petals and leaves.Belperron was also captivated by the underwater world, fascinated by the splendour of its shapes and the combinations of its colours.
Trained at the height of the Art Deco movement, Belperron softened its linear aesthetic, using materials and designs other jewellers hadn't explored yet. She pioneered the technique of setting precious stones in semiprecious materials. In addition to adapting these motifs in a unique way, she also opted for 22 karat gold, a softer karat level than commonly used, purely for its color.
Her jewellery was so original that she never signed her pieces, instead insisting "my style is my signature". And only the jewels delivered by the hand of Belperron in her salon in the rue de Châteaudun, jewels that passed before her own eyes, can lay claim to the famous quote. She was convinced that the originality of her jewellery made it easily identifiable and that there was therefore no need for it to be signed. It was a principle from which she never wavered, yet it does not make the task of art historians or jewellery experts easy, as it can sometimes be very difficult to attribute a piece of jewellery to a designer solely on the basis of a characteristic style.
Suzanne Belperron was born Madeleine Suzanne Vuillerme on September 26, 1900 to Jules Alix Vuillerme and Marie Clarisse Baily-Maitre in Saint-Claude, France. Her mother encouraged her talents and enrolled her in the Municipal School of Music and Fine Arts quite a distance from the family home. In the 1917-18 competition at the school, she was awarded the first prize for her enameled pendant–watch. Befriending Germaine Boivin, daughter of René Boivin, while they were both students, she joined the Boivin firm as a modelist-designer.
She was a great success at Maison René Boivin rising to the rank of co-director. In 1924 Suzanne married Jean Belperron, an engineer, and together they moved to the Montmartre area of Paris.
Designers with the major jewelry houses traditionally remained anonymous, working behind the scenes to promote the house. Seeking to make a name for herself and rebelling against this culture of anonymity, Suzanne resigned her position with Maison René Boivin in 1932 accepting a position working with pearl and gemstone merchant Bernard Herz as their exclusive, and more importantly, recognized designer. Herz had been a supplier to Maison René Boivin since 1912 and therefore they had known each other for quite a long time. She was given free reign at Maison Bernard Herz and it was here she gained acclaim in her own right, becoming a major figure in the jewelry world alongside such luminaries as Cartier, Boucheron and Van Cleef.
Belperron created distinctive, unusual jewelry using large stones and undulating forms. She often collaborated with the client to achieve the exact right tone of the jewel. Her designs responded to the desires of a younger generation who wanted bolder, more distinctive designs. Combining large, sculptural, carved semi-precious stones with diamonds and other precious gems, she created a bold, dramatic effect. Belperron maintained her shop at 59 rue de Châteaudon where clients privately viewed her jewels by appointment. Her clients received the address discreetly, by word of mouth, and notables such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Fred Astaire and the Duchess of Windsor called on her personally to make their selections.
In the style of a dressmaker, Belperron kept precise measurements of her client’s fingers, wrist, and neck. She often tailored an item to the inpiduals’ skin tone, facial structure or the shape of her hands. Taking into consideration the desires of the client, she worked with her measurements and other meticulous notes to ensure that each creation would suit the customer perfectly.
This period of evolution in woman’s attire inspired a new aesthetic in jewelry as well. For the first time, jewelry design was considered integral to the clothing it was being worn with. Some couturiers, Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, to name two, took this to the next step and created their own fashion jewelry-lines to complement their clothing designs. Fashion photography played an integral role in solidifying the relationship between clothing and jewelry.
The Nazi occupation of France during World War II saw her partner, Bernard Herz, interned and later murdered in a concentration camp. Belperron took over the company in 1942. This new firm traded under the name Suzanne Belperron SARL throughout the war years. After the war Belperron partnered with Herz’s son Jean and revived the name Herz-Belperron. This partnership remained in place until her retirement in 1974.
She retired in 1974, having created 3,000 - 5,000 jewels throughout her career and an archive of over 9,200 gouache paintings and designs - many of which were never made. Thankfully, a collection of her original jewels and this precious archive are preserved, along with new jewels signed “Belperron”, at the Belperron salon in NYC.
The Herz-Belperron company was dissolved in December of 1975. The rights to Herz-Belperron designs were sold in 1998 to Ward Landrigan of Verdura where they still craft and sell the designs under the name Belperron.
In 1963 Suzanne Belperron received the rank of Knight of the Légion d’Honneur, the highest French order of military and civil merit, for her career as a jewelry designer.
Each piece of Suzanne Belperron’s jewellery was born of many sketches in gouache, drawn by her or adapted by her assistant, and redone as many times as necessary until the design resembled her creative idea. Production would then take place with the help of the Groëné et Darde workshop.
Believing that her work needed no identification, she never signed a piece. She was known to say ‘My style is my signature.’ Groëné et Darde produced her designs and marked them with their maker’s mark, which can be used to help identify Belperron designs. From 1928 to 1955 they used the initials ‘G.D.’ with an ‘Sté’ surmount and fleur-de-lys, from 1955-1970 they used the initials D.F. with a fleur-de-lys and from 1970-1974 they used a D with a fleur-de-lys and Sté surmount followed by ‘Cie’. After her deat, a new Herz-Belperron company was founded. An American firm, using the drawings they had acquired, went on to produce replicas of her jewels, signing them ‘Herz Belperron France’. These can be distinguished from the jewelry made during her lifetime, under her supervision, by that signature.
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