COCO CHANEL CAMBON

 

If you’re like me, you have drooled over more than your share of vintage Chanel, YSL and Givenchy Gripoix jewelry in your day. In fact, vintage Chanel Gripoix is the most coveted and collected vintage jewelry today. Gripoix pieces feature colored glass that can look bubbly and richly Byzantine, or smoothly enameled in a sleek Mid-Century style. Totally chic!

 

I did a little research about Gripoix and uncovered so many cool learnings. For instance, Gripoix is closely associated with the beginnings of women’s liberation and also marks the start of costume jewelry (like Chanel and YSL) being valued as a collector’s item.

 

So What is Gripoix?

Gripoix was invented in 1869 by a highly-skilled lady entrepreneur (right on!) and pro glass maker, Augustine Gripoix. Her eponymous glass making method, Gripoix, is officially defined as “a sophisticated technique for setting and enameling colored, cast glass in intricate metal mountings.”  Without boring you to tears (Look Dad! I’m using my Art History degree!), Gripoix is made from “Pâte de verre,” or glass paste, which is formed when molten glass is poured into a mold.

 

The Who’s Who of Gripoix

Gripoix’s first clients were stage actresses like Sandra Bernhardt as well as the world’s first couturier Charles Worth, Paul Poiret and of course the inimitable Coco Chanel, who commissioned pieces with a purposefully a Byzantine look and then became a lifelong customer. In fact, Gripoix developed a special faux pearl technique for the notoriously exacting Madam Chanel that gives her pieces their characteristic and an oh-so-lovely uneven mother of pearl surface.

In the 20th century, design super stars Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Balmain and Dior all used Gripoix extensively in their work.

Why Is Gripoix Important?

What’s so cool is that the development of the Gripoix coincided and reflects the beginnings of women’s liberation. As gals in the late 19th and early 20th century were becoming increasingly engaged in society,  they wanted less precious but equally gorgeous jewelry that they could swim, nightclub (read: smoking and drinking!) and drive in. So this style, along with the hand-in-hand development of the total Chanel look, signifies in fashion the increasing empowerment of women in society at large.

Chanel Pearl + Gripoix cuff

Secondly, leading fashion houses embraced costume jewelry and Gripoix, because it allowed for more exciting, bold and colorful designs than their expensive precious jewelry counterparts, where things tended to be more classic (read staid) investment pieces. Gripoix brought more flexibility and thus, fashionability to accessories.

Lastly, for those of us who love vintage jewelry, because of its beauty, time consuming and highly specific manufacturing process plus its designer associations, Gripoix became one of the first big costume jewelry collector’s item and jumpstarted costume jewelry being taken seriously for its value and beauty.

Yves St. Laurent Emerald & Gold Drop Earring

Why is it Valuable?

Gripoix is painstakingly handmade and increasingly rare. After many years in the founder’s family, the House of Gripoix company rolled into the larger French conglomerate TWG. Only a handful of master craftswomen still know how to make it.

The metal is comprised of a secret copper recipe and soldered using powdered brass, a very rare technique these days. The glass arrives in gorgeous rods from Portland (of all places) and is hand mixed carefully to create custom colors for each piece. It can take an artisan many hours to produce a single piece.

 

If you are captivated by this technique, check out our Gripoix collection comprised mostly Chanel and Givenchy pieces below! Enjoy!