This spread, clockwise from top left: Taffin’s showroom; a candy shank ring with a yellow diamond; using diamonds in settings; ring with green band; Opal “Spider” brooch; statement bracelet; a kunzite brooch; one of the most popular Taffin ring designs; Rubelite, Diamond, Pink Sapphire, Moonstone, Ruby and Platinum “Star” Brooch; yellow diamond with red band.
American creations fuse Paris chic with Manhattan excitement. Take, for example, his playful rings of brightly colored gems paired with the even more brightly colored ceramic bands: they manage the difficult feat of being both elegant and whimsical at the same time. Since launching Taffin in 1996, the haute couture jeweler has developed the reputation as a connoisseur of exotic gems who can create intricate and unique settings which flatter not just the stones, but also the wearer. A piece by de Givenchy will not be lost in a crowd, even if everyone is wearing serious bling, because of the aristocratic eye he possesses, which knows how to balance the tasteful with the unexpected. He has a healthy disrespect for the tired conventions of fine jewelry design, while knowing instinctively what are the real hallmarks of quality. His obsession over the details of construction translates into pieces that are extraordinary yet unpretentious. He’ll mix commonplace materials with exalted stones, or glorify a gem that most jewelers might pass over—a trait he shares with that other famous contemporary French fine jeweler, Joel Arthur Rosenthal. Though, in comparison, JAR designs are more flowery where Taffin’s are more edgy, which is reflective of the slightly bad-boy allure of de Givenchy himself (which is just his “look”—in reality, he’s a very happy husband to wife Gina and father to their daughter Stella). Imaginative, luxurious, inventive, one-of-a-kind: clients keep trying to come up with new ways of explaining the beauty behind Taffin. “I am trying to safeguard a craft that is being lost,” de Givenchy once said. “Jewelry is an emotional object that projects who you are. It takes artistry, intellect and logic to make it.” u 124 QUEST