Dorette

A year and a half after Catherine Lévy, founder of the jewellery brand Dorette, passed away, her sisters Juliette and Marion Lévy have decided to continue the adventure... much to the delight of lovers of this jewellery brand of a thousand hues!

Trained at the Louvre School and then at the National Institute of Heritage, Juliette Lévy, an art restorer, specialises in the restoration of polychrome sculptures. Marion is a graduate of the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris. She worked as an art director for the Peclers Paris office, and later co-founded Maison Georgette, a textile publishing company.

Facing this sudden change in their lives and the future of Dorette, we asked them a few questions...

1. You don't really come from the world of jewellery, yet you decided to continue the Dorette brand. What convinced you to embark on this adventure?
Marion: This world was very familiar to us; continuing the adventure seemed obvious, like continuing a dialogue with our sister Catherine. We were three sisters and have always been close.

Juliette: We made our decision very instinctively; it happened very quickly! Jewellery has always been part of our lives. Jewellery represents a connection within families or between friends - we exchanged jewels, lent them to each other... This connection still binds us to Catherine.

2. Dorette jewellery fascinates people from all over the world. Why do you think that is? What is the essence of a Dorette jewel?
M&J: Dorette jewellery is truly unique, and it shows! Each piece is composed like a particular piece of music, with its rhythm and flavour. It's a mix of fantasy and freedom in creation and rigorous craftsmanship in execution. Each piece is handmade from A to Z, bearing the mark of the artisan who shaped it; it testifies to his gesture...

 3. When Catherine created her jewellery, did you ever accompany her on her travels and in her creative processes?
J: I travelled with Catherine more than a dozen times to India. In Jaipur, I often accompanied her to the lapidaries, who knew me, to choose stones... It's moving when we go back there to see them again and maintain that relationship.

4. You each have your professional occupations and passions. What has changed since this decision?
M: As a textile designer and art director, Dorette gives me the same pleasure in drawing and manipulating colours and materials; it's both a discovery and a continuation.

J: I divide my time between the two activities: I continue to work for museums and collectors, part-time, and I join Marion at the Dorette workshop several times a week.

5. What is your connection to jewellery? Do you have any significant memory related to these objects?
M: We have always loved jewellery, as did our mother. Jewellery is an object of transmission, of identity, both a witness to a shared history and the bearer of a particularly intimate bond. Each piece must create a real relationship, with love at first sight followed by a dialogue that lasts, evolving over the years.

J: Our mother collected jewels, brought them back from her travels... Since childhood, we made jewellery with all kinds of materials... It was one of our games.

6. What is your creative process at Dorette today? Have you changed the organization?
M&J: We have kept the same creative process and methodology. It works very fluidly and intuitively at first, in the joyful and luminous manipulation of stones; then it becomes more structured in a second phase.

7. Dorette jewellery is recognizable for its multicolored stones that coexist in a free and poetic manner. Have you kept the same sources in India? How do you choose your stones? Do you travel to India as Catherine did?
M&J: This is crucial, and we have, of course, kept the same sources and collaborators with whom Catherine had built relationships of trust.

India is more than an inspiration! Dorette jewellery also reveals the know-how of Indian workshops, skills that are unique in the world.

We choose stones as our sister did, one by one, for their brilliance, their colourful nuances; they must sparkle and speak to us! Each stone is different because none is calibrated

8. If you had a message for a young artist or creator, what would it be?
It's difficult to deliver a message! Everyone must find their own self-expression that reflects their culture and sensitivity, and have the desire to please by sharing colours and lights.