Ginette Ny

Ginette NY, from Marseille to New York

Behind the Ginette NY brand is a woman of character, Frédérique Dessemond, who was born and raised in Marseille, and more precisely in architect Le Corbusier's amazing Cité Radieuse - imagined between geometric shapes and minimalism, already. But it is from her mother that the designer says she got her love of jewelry: "She liked to accumulate them and mix styles," she told Vogue magazine. She also had a great taste for mixing masculine and feminine jewelry. I was naturally inspired by her style to design my creations. Frédérique Dessemond moved to New York in 1999, after studying art history at the Sorbonne. She won her Green Card in the lottery! In 2006, it was from the United States that she launched the Ginette NY brand. "My initial idea was to give women access to precious jewelry that is not ostentatious, so that they can wear it every day." Today, Ginette NY still maintains this principle of contemporary jewelry, offering an everyday luxury, "a contemporary and timeless gold skin jewelry."

Clean lines in a New vintage style

The Ginette NY jewelry seems all the more sober as it is inspired by everyday objects and claims the "luxury of simplicity." Frédérique Dessemond says: "I was looking to make simple things. The goal was to have as few interventions as possible on the pieces. Hence my idea of using jewelry components directly, plates, clasps, chains, etc., and giving them a second life. Once cut, polished and engraved, they become jewelry pieces in their own right. This is how the Mini Ever Charm bracelet or the Tanger Stud earrings are born. The lines are sleek, light. Like a wink, the jewelry very often has a little mischievous touch. The collections in the new vintage style are inspired by the creative breath of New York, many impose themselves in the landscape and become iconic. Thus, if we were to mention just one, the Disc On Chain necklace, a round pendant pierced with two holes to let the chain slide, a new way of wearing a medal, to be worn alone or in accumulation, as an invitation to creativity. This pierced disc is the origin of the Ginette NY brand, since it was the first piece of jewelry designed by Frédérique Dessemond in 2002, for the opening of a Calypso Bijoux boutique in New York. This clever and minimalist side also has a more "down to earth" origin. Frédérique Dessemond wanted to make luxury accessible without ever compromising on the quality of materials. For jewelry made from patterns, you have to fill the mold with gold if you want to make volume, which is very expensive," she tells the newspaper La Provence. By using the plates we can gain a little weight. So I turned - and we were the first to do this - to laser cutting. My motifs are 2D". Thus the arabesques or, later, the gingko pendant come to life. Because if Ginette NY's creativity is often based on reinterpretation, it also feeds on symbols. When, for example, Frédérique Dessemond takes this gingko leaf as the emblem of a collection, it is because the tree is a symbol of resistance, having survived the bombing of Hiroshima. "The importance of the symbol is paramount; my jewelry all has a very personal feel to it."

A duo of women at the helm of Ginette NY

The Ginette NY collections are characterized by their minimalist feel, and accessibility. The materials, too, are essential. Frédérique Dessemond has a particular love for 18-carat rose gold, but she also likes to work with wood and stones, and even mix them, as in the bracelets of the Heal collection, a mix of fine stone beads (onyx, amazonite, white agate...) and wood beads. More than a success, a surge. In 2006, Frédérique Dessemond joined forces with Anne Hugard to develop the Ginette NY brand, with a strategy: always present in the collections "a mini piece, a regular/medium and a jumbo. The jumbo is not the piece that sells the most given the price of gold. But at the same time, it's the most visual piece, the one that the press will pick up on, the one we'll communicate about. Fifteen years later, Ginette NY has six boutiques under its own name, in Paris, New York, Cannes and Saint-Tropez, 22 corners and 130 retailers. The brand's success has not wavered, imposing on the jewelry world such must-have pieces as the Disc Rings, with their settings deliberately turned upside down so that the stone is in direct contact with the skin.