Add to this narrow but important mix the Serendipity Paris watch by Christine Chen, a Paris-based but Shanghai-born jewelry designer, a Chinese luxury brand with a unique point of view.
In the rarefied world of luxury, one can count the number of Chinese luxury brands on the fingers of one hand, such as the famous jeweler Wallace Chan or the art jeweler Cindy Chu, both based in Hong Kong, or Shang Xia, the luxury clothing label owned by Italy’s richest family, the Agnelli family.
Despite this past Fine Jewelry The new season in the French capital has revealed a new entrant – Serendipity Paris by Christine Chen, a blend of Chinese heritage and French expertise launched in 2017.
Her jewelry collection, presented at her showroom at 16 Place Vendome, included Art Deco necklaces, yellow sapphire Ginko brooches, and Versailles fountain earrings in a mix of faceted apatite and diamond briolettes. At a five-day show during the French haute couture season, she also presented an Art Deco necklace and earrings in Colombian emeralds and diamonds worth €8 million. Her new summer collection, Riding the Waves, featured enchanting earrings made of tiny diamond spray caps, lapis lazuli beads, and South Sea pearls.
Her inspirations are many: from classic furniture to oil paintings, while her crown was inspired by one of her three daughters’ love of Disney. Frozen.resulting in a heart-shaped Snow Queen crown with a heart-shaped aquamarine stone, surrounded by diamonds and decorated with freshwater and South Sea pearls. Yachting holidays in the Caribbean and winters in Antigua and Barbuda inspired the latter.
Serendipity Paris is the brainchild of Chen, who first became obsessed with gemstones while growing up in Shanghai admiring her Chinese grandmother’s jewelry. She climbed a chair to lower a local sequoia wood jewelry box from the top shelf where her grandmother kept her precious items.
“The chair was swaying, and I was afraid I would drop the box,” Chen recalls during lunch at the Ritz, “but suddenly I realized my grandmother was behind me, smiling.”
Gently, Grandma gently revealed the beauty of her rare stones, her favorite jade items, jewelry combs, and intricate pieces, love was born, and a career path was set.
Chen grew up in Shanghai to a university professor father known for his English textbooks and a department store manager mother. Chen studied journalism at Shanghai International University and became an on-camera reporter for Shanghai Oriental Television Network in 2008.
Although she bought her first stone with money she earned translating a Disney children’s book into Chinese, it was a trillion-cut pink spinel, which she turned into a ring that her friends loved so much that it led to her first orders from friends and admirers. Within two years, she was buying a 20-carat Burmese blue sapphire for a client for $400,000, and it has been on an upward trajectory ever since.
“I was happy. I suddenly realized I was okay,” recalls Chen, who began producing eternity rings for an extended circle.
“I think jewelry can transport you, make you feel like a different person, like a princess. You can love yourself more in that moment. I grew up as an only child in a very traditional Chinese family. Be a good student, excel at work, be the perfect daughter. I’m very driven, probably by my mother. I was never rebellious as a teenager. The most rebellious thing I did was come to Paris and stay with my husband!” she laughs, referring to meeting her husband, fellow Chinese David He, at a mutual friend’s wedding at the Shangri-La Hotel in Paris.
“I immediately felt something special was happening,” she says, naming her brand after that happy moment.
After meeting David, she moved to Paris and then began studying at two of Switzerland’s most prestigious colleges – the famous Gobelin Gemological Academy in Lucerne, and the SSEF in Basel, which specializes in testing colored gemstones. Although she was already well versed in studying auction houses; the history of Chinese and Western jewelry; and buying gemstones.
“I have a good sense of what to buy and when. Like buying Paraiba tourmalines when they were very low. No one thought they would become more expensive than rubies, but now they are,” says Chen, whose jewelry is beautiful, calm, sparkling and unexpected.
These days, Serendipity shops for gems in Antwerp, Geneva and Hong Kong – and works with dealers in New York, Bangkok and Sri Lanka. Chen clearly has a keen eye for gemstones, and this year her brand will see sales exceed €15 million. She is forecasting double-digit annual growth in her self-made business, which she owns 100%. She has appeared in the haute couture shows of Paris, including Dior and Chanel, and like the ladies of haute couture, she is careful not to reveal her clients. While in Cannes for the festival, Serendipity dressed Coco Rocha and Michelle Yeoh.
When asked to define her DNA, Serendipity described it as “romantic, feminine, strong, independent, and unique.”
Like serious jewelry lovers, Chen respects Joel Rosenthal of JAR’s in Paris as the greatest contemporary jeweler. She appreciates that the jewelry industry is a slow-growing industry when it comes to brand building, especially given Chen’s obsession with sourcing the perfect stones and creating truly high-quality pieces.
“Having a store is a great opportunity, but now I prefer to invest my resources in my products. There are a lot of young girls who have a passion for clothes and accessories, but I never had a passion. I wanted to buy things that have increasing value and make you feel better,” she concludes.
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