PARIS — Come October, a new jewelry event will crop up in the Tuileries Garden, already home to several trade shows during Paris Fashion Week.
Le Rendez-Vous, with its first edition set to run Oct. 2 to 5, will be dedicated to brands from the French jewelry sector.
Located opposite the Première Classe trade show, it will showcase 24 labels in the fine or fashion jewelry segments hailing from around the country, including the likes of ANDAM Prize finalist Mara Paris, Gas Bijoux, Mazarin, Rouvenat, Vever and Lydia Courteille, best known for her exuberant figurative high jewelry creations.
The new event is organized by Émergence, a business development program launched in 2023 to serve France-based emerging brands in watchmaking, jewelry, fine jewelry and tableware by Francéclat, the French economic development committee dedicated to these sectors.
Didier Roux, president of Francéclat, highlighted the vibrancy of the country’s jewelry and fine jewelry industry. “In workshops and creative studios alike, craftsmanship, innovation and entrepreneurship come together with an energy that reflects the sector’s remarkable momentum and confidence in the future,” he declared.
Calling the sector’s creativity “one of the defining strengths of French excellence,” Hervé Buffet, managing director of Francéclat, said the event was a reiteration of the organization’s commitment to emerging brands and their development.
While conversations during the event might lead to sales, wholesale or otherwise, don’t call Le Rendez-Vous a trade show, Émergence director Priscilla Jokhoo told WWD.
“The idea was to put in place a moment that will allow the fashion and fine jewelry sector to shine in Paris, in France and internationally during Paris Fashion Week,” she continued. “We didn’t want to call it a trade show or showroom because you will be invited to discover a curated journey.”
In addition to a central zone where the brands will unfurl their universes, there will be the “Jewelry Monograph,” an immersive exhibition featuring monumental suspended paper structures inspired by nature created in collaboration with artistic director and paper artist Baptiste Desjardin.
Another exhibition will focus on photography created for Émergence Magazine, a biannual publication produced by the organization.
Meanwhile, those wanting to dive deeper can swing by the bookstore section, which will stock a selection of specialized books and magazines spanning jewelry design, craftsmanship, fashion and creative culture.
Visitors will also get a map showcasing the network of group or individual showcases happening all over town during the fashion week period.
Jokhoo said the event’s inception sprang from the observation that jewelry brands, particularly French ones, were taking part in the fashion weeks in droves but that the constellation of independently organized events did not fully reflect a dynamic sector.
Organizing the event also addressed a need for connection “because there are very few points of contact in France for the [wider] jewelry sector,” Johkoo added. “It was important to show [such brands] because it’s a sector that truly participates to the vivacity of Paris Fashion Week and is doing very well.”
According to Francéclat data, the jewelry, watchmaking and tableware sectors in France cumulatively represent 70,000 jobs and an annual revenue of 15 billion euros, which results in a 1.6-billion-euro trade surplus for the country.
