PATRICK GOOSSENS AND
HARUMI KLOSSOWSKA
DE ROLA PHOTOGRAPHED
AT THE GOOSSENS HQ
IN PANTIN, PARIS, IN MAY‘The pomegranate had
all the right details
for interpretation in
the Goossens way’
couture-jewellery methods were rooted in
traditional goldsmith and gemsetter skills.
Texture is key, as is the sculptural trace
of handwork. When Degorce closed in
1957, Robert began to work directly with
Coco Chanel, while still producing designs
for other houses and developing his own.
The pair entered into a design partnership
that lasted until she died in 1971. Robert
carried on for other couture houses, but he
was determined to carry forward the singular
style he had developed with Chanel. He set
up Goossens Paris, distinguishing his
artisanal couture-jewellery design from the
burgeoning business of mass-manufactured
costume jewellery.
By 1978, Robert had transferred the
running of his business to his son Patrick.
Meanwhile, Robert’s sculptor daughter
Martine set up an atelier in 1974 with her
father, intent on taking the Goossens Paris
style into furniture and lighting design. By
the mid-1990s, the house interiors aesthetic
was in demand, and the atelier began an
enduring collaboration with fashion’s go-to
architect Peter Marino. In 2005, Goossens
was acquired by Chanel’s Paraffection, a
group of artisan workshops that the brand
calls on for its finest handwork.
This month, as it looks to the next era,
Goossens Paris takes on the role of designer-commissioner for the first time as it launches
an eponymous jewellery collection with
Harumi Klossowska de Rola, the daughter
of the artist Balthus and the Japanese painter
Setsuko Klossowska de Rola. When Patrick
started thinking about designers suited
to working with the house, Harumi sprang
to mind. She had experience designing for
Chopard, Valentino and Galliano, and there
was a distant connection between the two.
Harumi’s brother Thadée is the husband
of the late Loulou de la Falaise, fabled muse
to Yves Saint Laurent, whom Robert had
worked with during her time as the house
jewellery designer.
While Harumi’s design style is not a direct
fit – she is best known for her narrative-
driven animal rings – the visceral quality
of her designs resonated. The Goossens Paris
x Harumi Klossowska de Rola collection
features six interior objects and six jewellerydesigns influenced by fruits and leaves
laced with ancient symbolism.
‘Much of Harumi’s work involves animal
motifs, but we already have links with
Chanel’s lions,’ says Patrick. ‘However, we
liked her floral ideas.’ Harumi presented a
series of simple sketches, among them a small
drawing of a pomegranate. ‘The pomegranate
was right for us,’ says Patrick. ‘The colours,
the texture – it had all the right details for
interpretation in the Goossens way.’
‘To work with Patrick is a privilege and
a pleasure,’ says Harumi. ‘The Goossens
workshop is made up of expert craftsmen
who place a lot of importance on texture.’
She was delighted that they singled out her
pomegranate. ‘I have always loved its colours,
textures, seeds – and that it’s not perfectly
round, which must be the Japanese in me!’
In his illuminating history of the house,
Maison Goossens: Haute Couture Jewellery, writer
Patrick Mauriès lays out the importance
of Goossens’ contribution to design as a
whole: ‘In the early days, costume jewellery
was simply an imitation of the real thing.
By the time Robert Goosens started making
jewellery, it was associated with the creation
of genuinely new forms, using new materials,
and formulating its own particular aesthetic.’
Adds Patrick: ‘This is not my job, it’s my life
and my spirit.’ ∂ goossens-paris.com108 ∑
Jewellery