LINE VAUTRIN

LINE VAUTRIN

A very poetic designer

"Born in 1913, the sculptor, jeweler and designer started out as a greeter for fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. With her fiery personality, Line Vautrin lasted only a few days. Still, Schiaparelli influenced her later creations, and Line Vautrin opened her first boutique in Paris when she was 25. During World War II, Line Vautrin’s “little somethings” in the form of jewelry, gilded boxes and accessories were popular with Parisian women, whose determined elegance became a form of resistance to the Nazis. 

By the ’60s, she had developed a devoted clientele that included Brigitte Bardot and Ingrid Bergman.

Line Vautrin died in 1997, and soon “prices for her work began to explode—increasing tenfold by 2007,” says James Zemaitis, head of 20th-century design at Sotheby’s. A piece now costs $10,000 to $100,000. Her dreams of the elements and mythology shine through in some of her work, which often focused on stars and constellations." -1stdibs.com

Some of her most sought after pieces were the ones which were decorated with rebus, charades, which of course are only understood if you speak French.

O- B- I- cent pas- si- O- N'- aimant

Obeissant passionemment

Passionately obedient.

la fee- mi- nid- T- bouclier- 2- la femmme

La feminite, bouclier de la femmme

Feminity, the shield of woman.

jeu- t'm- O joue- R- d'u- I plus- KI- R- haie- moins- queue- 2 mains

Je t'aime aujourd'hui plus qu'hier et moins que demain

I love you today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.

A prayer from St Francis of Assissi

Her gilded bronze and enamel jewellery is exquisite and amazingly modern.

Some of her jewelery also contained messages and charades

or Zodiac signs

"In 1950, the “queen of buttons” invented a new type of resin, Tolosel, which she heated, carved and twisted to create sensual shapes. Her famous convex mirrors were then formed by encrusting small pieces of colored glass or resin into these frames.  Vautrin called them her miroirs sorcières or “witches’ mirrors.”- linevautrin.com

some of her jewelry was also created from her resin, Tolosel

You may want to read the book dedicated to her work.

images linevautrin.com, amazon.com

au revoir.