Meet Ribeyron, Paris’s rising jewellery talent

On the stage of fashion, jewellery has traditionally played a supporting role. Shifting this focus is French-Canadian designer Jacques-Elie Ribeyron, who credits the medium as one for real creative experimentation. “You're not stuck with function – you have great freedom when you make jewellery because there are no limits,” he explains. Unconventional for both his background in industrial design and his approach to jewellery, he eschews norms with pieces built on utilitarian references spanning plumbing, construction tools and family traditions.

After crossing the pond from his native Montreal, he embarked on the collaborative vision for his Paris-based label by teaming up with a friend from his college days, graphic designer Clara Turcotte. Together, they presented a collection in Paris and dreamed up a lookbook shot amongst the bric-à-brac of a Brooklyn dollar store.

Continuing the theme of collaboration, Ribeyron added his industrial touch to LVMH prize winner Vejas Kruszewski’s AW16 collection, and now works alongside Tomorrow Is Another Day’s model-cum-artist Lukas von der Gracht, conjuring art installations, lookbooks and a “Boyfriend Collection” of t-shirts.

His aesthetic comes down to diversity: that of the people he works with, his ever-expanding range that’s grown to include ready-to-wear, and the unexpected references that inspire him. As Ribeyron opines, “I really like that there are things that are very different, that coexist with one another.”

Debuting his new lookbook by Etienne Saint-Denis, he tells us more.

REIMAGINING THE FAMILY

“In the SS17 lookbook, the idea was the theme of a re-worked family, to really to play on the archetypes of family today. There are very very different people, such as Lukas who is very feminine so he really dresses almost like a girl, then you also have Terence, the black guy who is far more masculine. That’s what I find  interesting – it’s the cohabitation of people with different identities who, even if they’re not exactly the same, they get on well or they have something which passes between them. I think that for the pieces there’s a bit of that, too, in fact. I really like that there are things that are very different, that coexist with one another. There's not really a theme that guides the entire collection.”

NO TARGET MARKET

“I don’t really want to communicate to a certain target, I want everyone to wear the pieces. For example there’s a bag that I gave to my mother, so my mother wears it, and there’s another one that I’ve given to friends my age who then also wear it. I think that in today’s society, we have to respect people’s identities, the differences in everyone. I have really tried to create things that communicate to very very different people, that everyone can at some point find a piece that they like, whether it’s a man, woman, child, someone a bit older.”

“For me, the collaboration with Lukas was the same as if a gallery had given carte blanche to an artist. I think t-shirts are perfect for that kind of project”

COLLABORATIVE SPIRIT

“The SS17 collaboration capsule with Lukas von der Gracht was launched separately in an art gallery. We thought it would be interesting to do a collaboration that put the casting photos of the new faces that he had found for Tomorrow Is Another Day at the forefront. Lukas made a series of t-shirts with these photos, adding phrases related to people he had met in the past, all with a bit of an emotional side, and that’s why he decided to call it the ‘Boyfriend Collection’. Lukas then proposed to organise a performance with artist Jaana-Kristiina Alakoski. I really wanted to let Lukas and Jaana express themselves and not intervene – for me, the collaboration with Lukas was the same as if a gallery had given carte blanche to an artist. I think t-shirts are perfect for that kind of project.

The collaboration with Vejas was different as we got involved together in the design process. Etienne Saint-Denis, who shot some of the lookbooks, knew Vejas from Montreal and he put us in touch. The collaboration was part of his AW16 collection so we started by exchanging rough directions, a dialogue began and very organically the collection was there – he is a brilliant designer.”

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