Contemporary French Jewellery

Elie Top offers the unexpected to create enchantment, by building hybrid universes that combine complementary techniques and materials. By crossing antagonistic aesthetics and temporalities, the designer creates unique pieces and signature collections of contemporary French jewellery.

Freedom
Creativity
Singularity
Perfectionism
Hybridization
Ethics

When he founded his jewellery house in January 2015 after an initial experience with Yves Saint-Laurent and over a decade at Lanvin, Elie Top wanted to give a more personal and sophisticated expression to his work. He defines his own space of freedom in the chivalrous words of Saint-John Perse:
“I have built myself with honor and dignity, and it promises well, the soil whereon I have established my law.”

It is with the greatest audacity and the highest of standards that he has succeeded in creating a never-before-seen aesthetic in the world of jewellery.

Permitting any form of inspiration within the setting of jewellery excellence in the service of style, the house of Elite Top embraces the freedom of taking the steeper path.

The unveiling of his first collection of jewellery, “Mécaniques Célestes”, in 2015 was met with surprise, leading a great American journalist famed for being uncompromising to say that “she had finally just seen something new!”.

This rare compliment showed Elie Top that he had succeeded in meeting the creative challenge that had been thrown down, taking his place in the market where expectations are huge because people believe that everything has been done before.

Elie Top’s creativity is the reflection of his abundant imagination, which draws upon poetry, music, history, and why not even geography. This is the crux of it all; the credo that founded the house of Elie Top. Always on the alert, this is his constant quest, the task at hand, the daily challenge.

It also lies in the technical creativity, in showing how to break boundaries with artfulness and ingenuity, to surprise, astonish and enchant!

Each collection by the house of Elie Top tells an epic tale of a world emerging from time immemorial, captured by its creator to be redesigned in a uniquely modern fashion.

Abstract geometries float through the cosmos of “Mécaniques Célestes”, or in the Bestiary of a primordial forest in “Magica Naturae”, each collection instates a unique style and makes it a signature.

Singularity is the reflection of Elie Top’s deep sincerity, expressing a highly personal and identifiable facet of his character through each of his creations.

Elie Top always designs with a meticulous obsession with detail, in a three-dimensional vision that is tangibly in service of the beauty of the jewellery.

He describes himself as a “manic-inventive” because perfectionism shines forth at every stage, from the creation to the production of his pieces of jewellery.

From the very first designs nothing is left to chance, as each stage requires time, precision and a rigor that leaves no room for artisanal interpretation.

From the virtuosic mechanism of “Mécaniques Célestes” to the assemblage of countless scales down to the millimeter for the Bestiary, each piece is a wonder of ingenuity, bearing forth a material that is sensual, a source of movement, or a secret mechanism.

Hybridization has always been in the nature of the creations of Elie Top, who has always loved to merge eras and styles, taking techniques from the past to combine them with the tools of today, or introducing mixtures of materials that are unprecedented in jewellery.

The codes of chivalry coexist gallantly with romantic floral motifs, the 1930s blend boldly with the baroque, gold sits alongside blackened silver and secret mechanisms from Enlightenment cabinetmakers find a new life in his jewels.

This hybridization of epochs, styles, materials and techniques is the hallmark of the surprising timelessness of Elie Top’s jewellery.

A lover of history and travelling through time, Elie Top has always kept the longevity of a piece of jewellery in mind.

Jewellery traverses centuries, transmitting milestone moments of a life and the aesthetic of an era. In this vein, the creator has always liked to turn a jewel from yesteryear into a jewel for today, whether this means simply taking the stones from the old piece of jewellery, or keeping an original motif to integrate it into a piece of jewellery with a new design.

The metamorphosis of an antique jewel allows us to breathe new life into the beauty of the past without draining our planet’s resources. It is both an aesthetic and virtuous approach, the upcycling of jewellery as seen by Elie Top.

For the signature collections, while the majority of the stones and gold still come from mines, these are RJC certified and guarantee the quality and traceability of all the precious materials used by the jewellery house.

Craftsmanship at the service of perfectionism:

Perfectionism is illustrated at all stages of creation and production of our pieces of jewellery. We leave no room for chance, and each step requires time, precision, and rigor on which we never compromise.

Indeed, each jewel is the result of a demanding collaboration with the best experts in their fields, diamond or gemologists, model makers, setters, polishers, or engravers, we work in synergy with each of them to achieve excellence.

The drawing

Passionate about drawing since always, the creator's work always begins with a story, a sketch, a drawing.

Elie Top always draws with a perfectionist obsession with detail and a very concrete vision of the beauty of the jewel and the style of its wear. The sketch becomes a drawing and is then transformed into a 3D model by our workshop experts.

The search for stones

In most cases, the stones are sourced from our suppliers who guarantee the traceability and quality of our stones.

As far as possible, Elie Top, who has always had a spirit of transformation, likes to hunt for old stones, and he willingly tackles the challenge of transforming a jewel of yesterday into a jewel of today.

All our models set with an ancient stone are the subject of a special indication on the product sheet. This is Upcycling in jewellery seen by Elie Top!

The making

Our jewellery is entirely made in France in several French workshops with exceptional craftsmanship, all RJC (Responsible Jewellery Council) certified, which guarantees the total traceability of our supply chain.

The box and maintenance

We have designed prestigious boxes to highlight an exceptional jewel and to protect it from friction, humidity and light. Boxes to cherish and protect your jewellery on a daily basis.