Laure-Isabelle Mellerio does not think about what came before her. She thinks about what Mellerio needs now. As the first woman to lead the house in its 400-year history, and the fourteenth generation of her family to do so, she is as likely to reach for tantalum as she is for the archive.
Excerpts from an interview:
A true collector, you have said, is much the same everywhere. And yet each market brings its own relationship with jewellery. What has the American market specifically revealed to you about how heritage travels?
LIM: What I find fascinating is that a true collector is very much the same everywhere — there is a curiosity to discover something that not everyone knows. Of course, each culture has its own relationship with jewellery. European clients may have a more instinctive understanding of our history, while Japanese clients often have a remarkable sensitivity to detail and subtlety. In the United States, I have been struck by a real openness to discovery and to engaging with a brand they may not have known before. Mellerio has such a long history, but I never want that to become a barrier. The American market reminds us that heritage is not something you need to inherit in order to appreciate.
How are you defining your tenure, both as president and as artistic director, at a moment when the house is simultaneously 400 years old and actively evolving?
LIM: I have approached the role by asking myself what Mellerio needs today, and what I can bring from my own experience and sensibility. Being the first woman to lead the family business is, of course, meaningful.
I am very conscious of the generations who came before me and of the responsibility that comes with being part of this extraordinary continuity. But I also believe that every generation must find its own way of expressing Mellerio. I see my role as preserving what makes Mellerio unique while allowing it to evolve in a way that feels authentic. My background has naturally influenced how I view jewellery — I am interested in the way it interacts with the body and evokes emotion more than in the type of stone used.
What is the real cost of remaining independent today, and how does that shape the decisions you make about where and how the house grows?
LIM: Independence comes with real responsibility. You cannot rely on the resources or structures of a large group, and every decision matters. You have to be conscious of where you invest and how you develop the business, while also protecting the brand’s identity. But independence means the freedom to make decisions that are right for the long term, and to remain faithful to your own vision. I would never say the independent model is easy — it requires discipline and sometimes difficult choices. But I believe the value of independence becomes even greater in a world where so much is becoming standardised. For me, the question is not how quickly we can grow, but how we can grow without losing what makes us Mellerio.
The Silvia Furmanovich collaboration brought an outside creative voice into Mellerio’s world. What determines when the house opens its archive to another perspective, and what do you look for before granting that kind of access?
LIM: Our collaboration with Silvia Furmanovich was about bringing together two worlds inspired by nature and colour. Silvia’s mastery of marquetry offered a way to enhance the setting for Mellerio’s Color Queen rings, bringing a new dimension to their vibrant palette.
Mellerio patented nail jewellery in 1951, decades before the category existed. What stopped it being commercialised at the time, and does it feel strange watching the industry finally catch up to an idea conceived 75 years ago?
LIM: It is a wonderful example of how an idea can be right but arrive before the world is quite ready for it. In 1951, jewellery was still largely understood through established conventions, and a jewel designed for the nail challenged those boundaries. Perhaps it was difficult to imagine as part of everyday life at the time. Today, the boundaries of jewellery have expanded and people are increasingly comfortable expressing themselves through unexpected details that sit somewhere between jewellery and fashion. It is reassuring to look back at an idea like this and realise that curiosity has always been part of Mellerio’s DNA.
The Maglia line demands that a piece understand gesture as much as gemstone. How does designing for movement and flexibility change the technical process compared to designing something static?
LIM: For me, jewellery is never completely separate from the person wearing it — it has to live with the body and become part of the person’s gestures. When designing a sculptural piece, you can concentrate primarily on its silhouette and the way it catches the light. With Maglia, we had to consider flexibility. How does the piece behave when someone moves? How does it feel against the skin? Does it follow the body naturally, or resist it? A jewel may require a great deal of technical thought, but the wearer should never feel that complexity. The stone is important, of course, but so is the life that happens around it.
Tantalum is dense, difficult and rarely used in fine jewellery. What made it worth the technical risk for the Asteria medallion?
LIM: Tantalum is a fascinating material because of its density and the technical challenges it presents. It has a very different presence from the materials traditionally associated with fine jewellery, and that opens up new creative possibilities. I am not interested in experimenting with a material simply because it is unusual — it must bring something to the design. Introducing a new material also requires humility. You have to understand its properties and work closely with the people who know how to handle it. I do not see innovation and tradition as opposing forces. For me, the most interesting innovation is the one that feels completely natural once you see the finished piece.
You trained as an interior designer, art historian and gemmologist. Which of those three disciplines shows up most visibly in how you design a piece?
LIM: I find it difficult to separate the three, because they have shaped different aspects of the way I look at things. Art history gives me a sense of context — it reminds me that every creation belongs to a larger conversation between periods and movements, which feels particularly important at Mellerio given our history. Interior design has probably influenced my understanding of proportion most directly; I am very sensitive to how elements relate to one another. Gemmology brings me back to the material itself. It teaches you to look carefully at each stone and to appreciate qualities that are not always obvious.
What’s next for Mellerio?
LIM: What comes next is really about continuing to open Mellerio to the world while remaining very clear about who we are. We have exciting projects underway in the US, including our debut at Salon Art + Design this November and our current Designer-in-Residence at Trove in New York. I want people to discover the Maison in different ways — through our jewellery, our history, our archives, our creative process and the people behind the work. We have the privilege of carrying a very long history. My ambition is to make sure that it remains a living history, with many more chapters still to be written.