René Boivin Jewellery

Born in 1864 to draper parents, trained by his brother, a goldsmith and chiseller, in the jewellery trade, René Boivin founded the jewellery house bearing his name in 1890. In 1893, he married Jeanne Poiret, sister of the famous couturier Paul Poiret. Together, they developed an original and modern style, strongly influenced by Haute Couture and contemporary artistic trends – Cubism, Art Deco – to create some of the most daring jewellery of the early 20th century. Following the premature death of her husband, Jeanne Boivin took over the management of the company and at the same time hired the young designer Suzanne Belperron, who had just graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and had won first prize in the Decorative Arts competition. The two women were responsible for a new direction in Boivin’s designs, which were undoubtedly more feminine in taste and sensibility, with less geometric and angular compositions, celebrating curves and round shapes. This collaboration allowed the Boivin house to take off in a new direction, the impetus of which was renewed by the arrival of Juliette Moutard who succeeded Suzanne Belperron in 1931 and remained in the service of Jeanne Boivin until 1970, when Juliette Moutard gave up her brushes to Marie Caroline de Brosses. The strength and renown of the Boivin house rests on the constancy of a recognisable style which has been able to hybridize with the great variety of the sources of inspiration of its different collaborators: shells and marine themes for Jeanne Boivin, animal and floral subjects for Juliette Moutard. The combination of these various female talents has enabled René Boivin to offer innovative and atypical jewellery that has met with great and lasting success.