Michèle Lamy talks about her untamed jewellery line, use of sustainable diamonds, and her gleaming gold smile
is sitting on her terrace at the Owenscorp headquarters in Paris, eating from a cheeseboard prepared by the cook. Much has been written of Lamy’s ethereal qualities, her raspy voice and witchy air, just as there are several books that feature the famed residence and office she has created with her husband,, in the city’s 7th arrondissement. Lamy, however, is not the eddy of cigarette smoke I’d anticipated.
The story of Hunrod is the story of Lamy: it speaks to her appetite for collaboration and creation. A decade ago Lamy was experimenting with jewellery, partly inspired by a shop on Paris’s rue de Bourgogne that displayed artists’ jewels. “This woman, Christiane Billet, showed bronze bracelets among other things, and I fell in love and bought some pieces,” she says.
Lamy, more than most, has a physical relationship with jewellery. Some of her teeth, famously, feature gold and precious stones, and when we meet she has just had a big ruby embedded in one of her top incisors. “It all started in LA, the teeth,” she says. This was when she and Owens called the city their home and she fed and watered many of the great and good at her restaurants Les Deux Cafés and Café des Artistes in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Since the first Hunrod collection, she has wanted to do something influenced by the Chinese zodiac, “but because Loree is an ox, she told me no”, Lamy laughs. Eventually Lamy persuaded her, as you imagine she can any reluctant collaborator. And in part it was because Lamy had discovered diamonds. Or, at least, Dover Street Market had put her in touch with the Diamond Foundry, which cultivates diamonds in its San Francisco laboratory. “Leo DiCaprio is an investor,” Lamy says.
Not that Lamy insists upon diamonds or gold. “I’m very degenerate about this. I prefer bronze,” she says. In fact, she doesn’t particularly like talking about jewellery at all: “It’s not a thing by itself. It’s an accessory to a person – my jewellery is part of me.” Lamy says she likes rings because she can look down whenever she likes and see her work. Along with her gleaming smile, her adorned hands seem to draw the attention of like-minded collaborators.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Shop The 10 Key Autumn/Winter 2022 Trends To Know NowFrom flight jackets to punchy plain white tank tops and maxi hemlines, Vogue highlights the hero autumn/winter 2022 trends.
Read more »
2022 TIME100 Next: Frida Escobedo'fridaescobedo is an architect with the spirit of a deep thinker and a sensitive artist,' writes Gabriela Camara. 'A poised creator, her work is both stunning and discreet' TIME100Next
Read more »
2022 TIME100 Next: Devery JacobsGuillermo del Toro (RealGDT) on kdeveryjacobs: 'The truth she carries with her and the paths she opens for herself, and others, fill the world with oxygen—with life' TIME100Next
Read more »
Why is the word ‘appropriate’ still being used to criticise Black hair in 2022?“One in five Black women feel societal pressure to straighten their hair for work and more than half of Black students have experienced name-calling or uncomfortable questions about their hair at school.”
Read more »