Meet the Fine Jeweler Giving Women a Glittering Defense

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The city parks are all rustling with golden leaves, the museum blockbusters (Van Gogh, Michael Craig-Martin) are open, and the London Film Festival is rolling into town. Autumn in London is one thing, but autumn in Mayfair is another because on top of all that, PAD London pops up in Berkeley Square (October 8 through 13). This year, the annual European art and design fair celebrates its 16th edition with 12 new galleries taking part, 63 in total, making for a compelling opportunity for collectors, designers, and onlookers to do a bit of shopping.

Paris-based, Flanders-born fine jeweler Elie Top, fresh from his recent trunk shows on Shelter Island, is one of them. This is Top’s third outing at PAD, and it’s a chance for the French designer to reconnect with London clients and present additions to his classic collections, along with new designs. I first met Top around 10 years ago. It was at his in-house studio at Lanvin on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, where he worked with his great friend, the house creative director at the time, Alber Elbaz. Prior to that, Top had studied at the school of the Parisian Couture Union Chamber, then with Yves Saint Laurent and Loulou de la Falaise in the late 1990s. Top is also a gifted illustrator and was singled out by Christian Lacroix in his early years. By 2014, the designer had created his eponymous fine-jewelry brand, establishing his suitably chic Elie Top salon on the Rue Saint-Honoré.

I was able to reconnect with Top during one of his trips to London to chat about his enduring passion for early-20th-century English artists, Gothic churches, and his on-again, off-again relationship with the English weather.

Elie, last time I looked you were scooting between New York and the Hamptons, so we’re excited to see you in London. We thought you’d never come!
Oh, but I do like London and would not want to say anything bad about it. Okay, maybe I don’t love the weather, but I came recently on the train for a friend’s birthday, and the next day it was sunny. So I spent three hours in the National Gallery. It’s easy to get there, there is no charge to get in, it’s not too busy and not too big—so it was fabulous. I hadn’t been there in a long time and had forgotten the huge masterpieces they have there. A whole room of Mantegnas!

But English art—and sometimes English weather—are a strong influence on your designs, correct?
This is true. I love works by the early-20th-century English artists, Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Aubrey Beardsley particularly. The Arthurian legends, which Beardsley illustrated, are a strong influence. But then, from a very young age, I was drawing Gothic churches, castles, and even a map of Europe, which my teacher displayed in class. I was proud of that.

Your medieval influences also saw you create a collection in homage to Joan of Arc. But what about the other Joan who has informed this new collection, La Dame du Lac?
I love listening to Joan Baez—there’s a sweetness in her voice, and though she wasn’t a woman who wore armour, she was part of a protest movement and was militant in her own way. When I designed the La Dame du Lac (“Lady of the Lake”) pieces, I sometimes listened to her singing “Queen of Hearts” over and over again. The lyrics of this traditional folk song feel like a mix of legends that I am drawn to, whether Tudor queens or medieval England. There were also two films that kept popping into my mind during the collection’s creation: the 1998 film Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett, and John Boorman’s Excalibur, a rather kitschy 1980s fantasy take on the Arthurian stories. In the end, I wanted to create these pieces because I wanted to give something back to women, a little power, protection. So, I thought, let’s make some very beautiful armour.

You are also bringing Twist, a more fashion-focused collection with a beautiful key design that seems to be getting some people in a twist of their own.
Ah, yes. Some people have suggested that there might be something sexual in the key—as in “the key to desire.” But when I was designing it, I imagined the key of dreams, or a key to a safe, a key to treasure. There is, I think, something very Parisian about Twist, like a reflection of the city’s 19th-century wrought-iron grills. I had also been mulling a multi-wear necklace, a modular piece where you could unclip a section to wear close to the neck, tight, like a choker, a little punky, maybe, but that you could also clip together to make an elegant sautoir, depending on how you feel that day. I am pleased to bring it to London this time because I had hoped to bring it last year, but there weren’t any pieces left. It sold out.

La Dame du Lac will be a focus at PAD. Will you introduce new pieces in London?
Yes, I have been working on cuffs, and rings in two new shapes, and some color. There will also be pearls with a mysterious purplish-gray luster. The new ring shapes? They have emerged in a more angular form than previous versions. They are also highly precious, with important stones—sizable emeralds and diamonds. The cuffs will be the same design as those from my Bouclier (“Shield”) collection, which are set with moonstones to reflect a foggy lake. The La Dame du Lac ones were actually influenced by the American artist James McNeill Whistler. His painting The White Girl and his other works of women in white, which I think look almost luminescent, were a strong inspiration in my choice of stones: opals, pearls, diamonds, and white sapphires. And I am also still working on a big Maltese cross, which I can’t show you yet, but it is sort of informed by what I did in my costume jewelry days. Only this one is for real. Ha!

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Chic on Repeat: We Tune In to Chanel’s Latest Must-Have Wearable Tech
This summer we had the joyfully kitsch Chanel Haute Joaillerie Sport collection, a patriotic red (ruby), white (diamond), and blue (sapphire) collection of one-off high-jewelry pieces inspired by the graphic motifs of soccer shirts and other sports kit. The Chanel logo and No. 5 symbols were, of course, perfectly suited to the sportif theme. This season it’s the Chanel watchmaking team’s time to have fun on the move, with the launch of Première Sound. This wearable jewel is a sautoir necklace based on a watch bracelet, with a Première watch face and (removable) earphones attached. Yes, that’s right: Now you can see just how precious your time is while listening to your favorite podcast. Both concepts, by Chanel’s increasingly creative hard luxury teams, are brilliant interpretations of Coco Chanel’s original “freedom of movement” missive to create clothing for women minus the restrictive underpinnings. I think Madame would heartily approve of her namesake house’s highly modern vision for precious designs that are practical and playful at the same time.

The Secret Colors of Gold and Silver
October in London heralds the annual return of Goldsmiths’ Fair. It’s a rare opportunity to see work from jewelers and silversmiths working across the breadth of the UK, but an entry ticket also allows a glimpse of the palatial red and gold Livery Hall of the 700-year-old Goldsmiths’ Company building in the heart of London’s financial district. Remodeled by the lauded British railway architect Philip Hardwick in 1835, its molded ceilings, towering Corinthian scagliola columns, and ginormous English-crystal chandeliers (each of which was designed to hold 48 candles) are gloriously intact. It’s hard to describe just how regal its plush inch-thick carpets feel underfoot. Goldsmiths’ Fair has upped its curatorial game in recent years and now presents a more contemporary vision of precious-metal design, all the while respecting craft traditions. These brooches, a selection of pieces available to buy direct from designers, are offered by Northern Irish designer Catilin Murphy, Yorkshire-based Faye Hall and London-based Emily Kidson. They clearly show that gold and silver don’t have to gleam to be just as precious.