Paris’ Place VendOme is home to many historic maisons, but across the city, entrepreneurial independent jewellers are springing up to offer fresh visions

Paris’ Place VendOme may be the home of high jewellery, but this rarefied world is only the glittering tip of the city’s iceberg of gem-filled creativity.

Under the waterline, a new generation of independent labels is rising, ready to bring their colour-filled designs, and inspirations that range from the natural world to art movements like art deco or Brutalism, into the light.

Here are six names who are setting the pace in Paris’ independent jewellery scene.

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1. Mira Stella

Designs inspired by nature at Mira Stella. Photo: Handout

The soil around Sophie Bouilhet-Dumas’ family home in Normandy is fertile indeed. Not only does it support verdant countryside, but it also sprouted Mira Stella, a fine jewellery brand named after the founder’s mother and grandmother.

Where others might have seen ephemeral beauty in nature, she saw treasures that transcended the ages. And since Bouilhet-Dumas is also a scion of the family that founded silversmith Christofle, it felt natural to reproduce the likes of hydrangea petals, sea kale seeds and flax pods in 18k gold.

Oak bark, chicory petals and heart-shaped quaking grass, a plant in the same family as wheat and rice, have since joined Mira Stella’s repertoire. Snippets of botanical information accompany each piece on the website, but if you are in the area, make sure to visit the brand’s boutique, a delightful ray of pink, warm light tucked away in the picturesque streets of Paris’ Saint-Germain-des-Pres.

2. Lucas Bauer

Lucas Bauer earring. Photo: Handout

Nature also influences the work of Lucas Bauer. Not surprisingly, considering he credits a parrotfish encountered while diving as changing the course of his career after nine years spent designing jewellery and accessories in the women’s fashion studio of Louis Vuitton.

This graduate of the famed ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne learned jewellery design on the job, aided by the idea that the precision and planning of patternmaking could be applied to his new medium.

For his eponymous label, Bauer’s inspirations are now found in deeper places: underground in mycelium, the fungal network that permeates our soil; or below the waves for algae. These tie into his idea that all things are connected and united, ourselves included, which is why his jewellery curls around the body organically.

Bauer made his Paris Fashion Week debut with a range that included fine jewellery designs made from recycled gold and stones sourced from existing stock.

3. Viltier

Viltier ring. Photo: Handout

Iris de La VillardiEre and Thomas Montier Leboucher were childhood friends who lost touch, eventually reconnecting over Instagram. Their catch-up conversations uncovered complementary skill sets and experiences in the jewellery world and from there sprang Viltier, a name composed of the first syllables of their last names.

Their first collection, featuring two U shapes connecting with diamonds to form a graphic oval, was a hit thanks to a retro-infused shape with fluted edges ideally realised with hard stone inlays.

Soft curves and plenty of sparkle are distinguishing features of Viltier designs, from the Clique RiviEre necklace and its dancing line of diamonds, to New Edge’s numerous takes on ways to add diamonds to a deceptively simple form.

When in Paris, don’t miss their Rue de Verneuil showroom, an impeccably decorated lounge filled with art and striking furniture in the Carre des Antiquaires area of the Left Bank.

4. Statement

A stand-out necklace from Statement. Photo: Handout

An entrepreneur to the core, Amelie Huynh left not one but two promising careers – one on Place VendOme with Chaumet and the other in advertising – to strike out on her own and launch jewellery brand Statement.

She uses diamond-set silver as her signature, a favoured combination for 19th century French jewellers. The metal’s symbolic association with femininity and the moon also struck a chord.

Art deco geometries, a flair for Brutalist architecture and Huynh’s own taste for voluminous pieces inform her work, which is all about making a personal statement – using jewels as a way to mark milestones, moments and memories.

More recently, she has added 18k gold to her palette and added styles with pearls, giving her striking designs a softer spin.

5. Gemmyo

The delicate geometry of Gemmyo. Photo: Handout

Regular visitors to Paris may remember adverts peppered around the city depicting a fluffy pink kitten. The images are entirely a product of Photoshop, Gemmyo founder Pauline Laigneau assures us, but that bold symbol has achieved its aim of putting her label on people’s lips.

In the years since its launch in 2011, Gemmyo’s delicate designs and smartly priced jewellery have done the rest. Among highlights are the stackable Art Deco line, the colourful Gemmyorama with drop-shaped stones, and the recently launched Entaille, with its minimal gold carving that gives a more unisex vibe.

Most recently, the brand debuted a limited-edition range featuring Umba sapphires, rare gems found in Tanzania and naturally polished by the waters of the river that gives them their name. Coming in a palette of warm tones that range from blushing pink to sunset orange, they became the sold-out stars of designs available exclusively at Gemmyo’s Paris boutiques.

6. Maison Avani

A symphony of sapphires: earrings from Maison Avani. Photo: Handout

Any jewellery aficionado turns into a kid in a candy shop when faced with trays of delicately pink/orange Padparadscha sapphires, but even siblings Milan and Thilan Ponweera, whose family supplies such stones from Sri Lanka to top jewellery houses, couldn’t resist the draw of the vibrant pink of Mahenge spinels.

Named for the Sanskrit word for “earth”, the brothers’ Maison Avani pays homage to such vivid gemstones in high-end designs offered in a bijou store on Place du Marche Saint-Honore in Paris.

While the painterly designs of creative director Milan are a great place to start, custom designs are also a tempting avenue offered by the Ponweera brothers – for instance, the recent peony-inspired range produced in collaboration with another pair of siblings, Stephanie Primet and Caroline Cnocquaert, who head up Paris’ oldest florist, Lachaume.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.