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BIOGRAPHY
Thierry Vendome was born in Paris
on May l st, 1964, in a family of artists ; his father was one of
the greatest jewelry designers of that time. Thierry grew up in
Paris , in an atmosphere filled with creativity, where friends and
close acquaintances intermingled : painters, writers sculptors,
photographers and jewellery designers from Belgium, Switzerland,
Germany or Spain...
At the of nine, his parents took him to the Designer Show where
mesmerized by the avant-garde atmosphere with Savagely, Sotto, Paco
Rabanne… he filled his young designer’s eyes with the universe of
decorative arts.
As a teen, white training with his father, he already designed
jewellery, which he created from reclaimed materials, such as the
floating wood on the shores of the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy,
for which he developed a passion.
It was his first sense of freedom, yet he was aware of how fragile
this freedom was in his long path of a designer, as the heir of the
“giants” of whom he speaks : the line of pioneers that he sought to
follow.
In 1990, he went to Belgium on an internship in the Abbey of
Maredsous, turned into a jewelry school and managed by Jean-Pierre
de Sadeleer, the great Belgian designer and a friend of the family.
He had literally, as the saying goes, "gold in his hands," for he
created 30 somewhat "wild" original pieces, whith pearls and stones
enhancing the beauty of the rings, pendants, bracelets and brooches
that became the stating point of the very personal style of his
future collections.
However, for five years he withdrew voluntarily from his own
designs. This was a time of active aluminium, he created bas-relief
sculpture and wreckage sculptures.
He also studied Art history, while trying to understand and decipher
the artistic trends of the time.
During his first trip to China in September, 1995, he opened himself
to a civilization going back several thousand years, and to its
mysteries. He brought back a number of imperial bronze coins and
antique porcelains that he recycled as jewelry, such as a graceful
necklace entitled "Extraordinary Garden", acclaimed and photographed
by enthusiastic medias.
In September, 2003, he opened his first store/workshop in the heard
of the Marais, attracting a crowd of avant-garde artists typical to
this area in Paris.
Thierry Vendome is by no means a passive designer. He transposes
into contemporary designs his conjectures about the present time.
Rejecting diktats and forms, he replaces the void by volumes; his
designs demonstrate an amazing use of unbalance; and his clients are
rediscovering the modern art of wearing jewelry : playful at times,
but always refined.
He revisits volumes, recreates new spaces, reinvents from raw
materials, such as his pendants in inlaid stones, his necklaces/brooches
in ironwood or his "Rust" series, made of "exploded steel, a fierce
and lasting material, "which gives him inspiration.
He wants, as he says, "to instill power into my jewelry." He also
bring something light and magical into it, such as the moving
circles inspired by Agam, or "the Galaxies," his slightly cosmic
signature piece.
With his "double window" rings on a bed of diamonds under the
sparkling stone, like an enlightened magician, he shows the way to
the many people who delight in wearing these timeless, yet so real
jewels.
By Isabelle Dillmann |