Partager l'article

Valéry Demure: A Lover of Jewelry

A piece of jewelry is an accessory that gives strength to its wearer. It is a work of art whose symbolism has evolved over time. This is the vision of Valéry Demure, who created her agency based on her passion for this new artistic form. 

The Valery Demure agency offers its expertise to a large number of creators and designers, who are all faithful to their desire to create jewelry that reflects their values ​​and principles.

For several years, Valéry Demure’s brands have been presented in showrooms and boutiques in Paris, New York and London, as well as major fairs dedicated to design, art and fashion. It’s a new conception of eclectic and accessible jewelry, proposed by new designers for the pleasure of knowledgeable and sophisticated customers.

Galerie Joseph has chosen to paint a portrait of this woman with an assertive taste. For eight years, she has been investing in our atypical spaces in the Haut-Marais to present to the different creators with whom she collaborates.

Valéry Demure: A Lover of Jewelry

Valéry Demure is known in the field of luxury jewelry and accessories for her discerning eye. Founder of her eponymous agency, as well as her e-shop, she loves unusual objects and in particular jewelry, which, for her, brings intense emotions to those who contemplate and wear them.

Thanks to her agency, she was able to introduce and promote creators in a selective market like jewelry. 

The preferred areas of her agency? Public relations, communication, sales, and brand strategy.

She selects the work of designers and represents them. It is the uniqueness of her choices and her knowledge that allow her to make decisions motivated by her sensitivity to jewelry.

“My selection is determined by my personal taste, by my instinct. I don’t present creators if I do not like their work and, of course, I like to represent creators in a relationship of mutual respect, trust and dialogue. My personal taste is very strong; I know very quickly if I like something or dislike it or I don’t care. I am very passionate and decisive,” she told us during the interview.

Valéry Demure is the curator of her conceptual project Objet d’Emotion. She reveals that it was born out of a frustration with the distribution of her brands in boutiques and department stores. She didn’t feel in tune with their way of doing things, which did not highlight her ethical choices. She launched Objet d’Emotion two years ago. 

“I have understood in recent years that my talent is in my very unique curation and my consistent promotion of the designers with whom I choose to work. So Objet d’Emotion is a project that is very close to my heart. It is a labor of love!” Valéry begins a dialogue with women and men passionate about jewelry, objects, design, art and beauty. “Everyone has an intimate sense of Beauty.”

Objet d’Emotion is an essential reflection on appreciation, consumption and experience.

For several years the collections she promotes have been present in the atypical spaces of Galerie Joseph during Paris Fashion Week and PAD Paris, the great art and design event for amateurs and seasoned collectors, where historic and contemporary design objects, primitive arts and precious jewels rub shoulders: a true Eldorado that allows her to share her favorites with a knowledgeable clientele, collector, or clients simply looking for something else that’s available in stores.

“These are fairs that bring us a knowledgeable clientele, and allow us great visibility. We create with great pleasure a beautiful scenography too. We can offer a more artistic, more specific curation. We can offer unique creations, very artistic jewelry that would not have an exhibition space otherwise. The stores now no longer take any risks and all present the same brands. Hence perhaps a weariness on the part of customers. Fairs such as the PAD are very inspiring and will be increasingly successful.”

The jewel, A Poetic Act

Valéry Demure told us that her engagement ring, in white gold with black diamonds, made by Vicki Sarge, was the jewel that was most important to her, from which she is never parted.

“For me, jewelry says a lot more about the person than clothing. The jewel informs about the culture, the social class, and the style of the person who wears it.”

She considers jewelry as a work of art, which is intimately linked to personality.

“I am not interested in Cartier bracelets or status brands. My jewelry is all very unique and well defines my personality. I don’t like to wear what everyone else is wearing, I don’t like uniforms, in fact the concept of ‘trend’ doesn’t appeal to me. It’s not for me.”

Historically, the jewel was an investment and a security for women. A currency which today has become, for some, a poetic act, a proof of singularity. For Valéry Demure, it matters a lot; the uniqueness of an accessory, its forms, its volume, its texture, its symbolism, and its nature are precious. And it’s on these concepts that she works today, that she seeks to highlight through her selections of unique jewelry.

“There are materials that I really like. I really like the non-traditional materials that Monique Pean uses in her creations: dinosaur bone, mammoth ivory, fossilized seal that she has engraved by craftsmen. I also like meteorite. I like ceramic, enamel, aluminum. I really like stones with inclusions, such as dendritic agathe, rutile quartz … etc. I also like ebony …”

Follow trends? It’s not its main driver.

“Trends don’t really interest me. I have a crush, and I succumb! Recently I fell in love with Palwer’s jewelry. I am in discussion with Cora Sheibani, whose work I love. I also really like the work of Monique Pean, who is quite avant garde. I’m not looking for permanent novelty. Novelty isn’t an obsession for me. I consider the new as an aberration, having brought us a quantity of mediocre products.”

A Selection of Independent Designers

Valéry Demure promotes a community of people who are intrigued by work, by provenance, the know-how, and who believe in good manners. She works with several designers, each one bringing its touch of poetry, its universe. Their work is personal and authentic. She also loves the creator with whom she associates as a human being. The designer transmits a bit of his soul through jewelry, a very marked identity, and his or her own language.

The jewelry lover likes working with freelancers, whose work reflects a certain authenticity.

“The provenance is very important. I like to work with independent creators who have developed their own signatures, who have ethical practices, who produce their jewelry in small workshops with very skilled craftsmen, and help to preserve quality craftsmanship. Certain techniques, certain traditions too, while innovating, of course. As in ready-to-wear, we know that jewelry can also have a very negative impact on communities, on the environment, the trade in diamonds, precious stones; gold can finance conflicts, wars. We can also talk about modern slavery, child labor … So traceability is crucial for me.”

With the current health situation, she admits that the global economy is impacted. She told us that things will take between twelve and eighteen months to recover. But it remains important to continue to consider jewelry as a luxury that allows us to celebrate extraordinary moments.

This is why the creators will continue to create beautiful accessories, but with the most flexibility. “The jewel remains a symbol of love.”

A Fundamental Relationship with the Client

Her clientele is sophisticated and knowledgeable, but not necessarily elitist. Valéry Demure’s goal is to create a community of clients who are genuinely interested in jewelry. She wants to educate them and reassure them by helping them and guiding them.

“You should also know that the jewelry market is extremely saturated and confused. The client gets lost. We bring a qualitative and artistic point of view on the jewel.”

Today, the trend is to order jewelry. The client wishes to obtain a unique design, to choose their materials. He or she seeks to have a privileged relationship with the designer. This crisis won’t prevent jewelry lovers from obtaining the most beautiful creations that Valéry Demure highlights. But the situation is unprecedented, and for Valéry, this crisis will certainly change the habits of everyone in this field.

“I want to be organized. Object of Emotion, our platform, is only two years old. We must already structure and then we will see. I would like to find partners, investors, because I think our concept is promising, and for me this crisis will change consumption habits, and will give even more meaning to our approach. We have in these past two years obtained very encouraging results. I believe in collaborations and partnerships. Everything must be thought out and consistent. We must consider the long term, and not do everything in the short term.”

The current economic situation is a challenge for the brands put forward by Valéry Demure, but also for her customers.

“Orders placed by individual customers with Objet D’Emotion weren’t canceled or postponed. On the other hand, orders placed by stores with our showroom are much more complicated. Some customers are waiting to see how this crisis will develop, some customers postpone their orders to June, July. Everything is more or less in suspense. We have received orders but certainly not as many as normal.”

Valéry Demure remains positive despite the current situation.

“Our next showroom in June will certainly be digital because we have too little information on travel restrictions for buyers, on insurance problems for department stores that cannot delegate their teams … We don’t even know if the points sales after these closing weeks will have budgets to order from our brands. We expect to find our customers and buyers at the end of September-beginning of October in Paris and perhaps New York. At the moment, we don’t know how the situation will be affected. But we remain positive.”

This tasteful woman carries an endless love for jewelry and accessories. She chooses the brands with which she collaborates by following her instinct, and her heart. The designers she represents are all, without exception, demanding and are committed to creating jewelry of great beauty. Their values ​​and passions inspire them to produce artworks which are intended for a clientele that Valéry Demure absolutely wants to guide, educate, and inspire. She’s a woman who loves jewelry, because we can own it, but it owns us too. And this is a strength for Valéry.

Valéry Demure remains positive despite the current situation.

“Our next showroom in June will certainly be digital because we have too little information on travel restrictions for buyers, on insurance problems for department stores that cannot delegate their teams … We don’t even know if the points sales after these closing weeks will have budgets to order from our brands. We expect to find our customers and buyers at the end of September-beginning of October in Paris and perhaps New York. At the moment, we don’t know how the situation will be affected. But we remain positive.”

This tasteful woman carries an endless love for jewelry and accessories. She chooses the brands with which she collaborates by following her instinct, and her heart. The designers she represents are all, without exception, demanding and are committed to creating jewelry of great beauty. Their values ​​and passions inspire them to produce artworks which are intended for a clientele that Valéry Demure absolutely wants to guide, educate, and inspire. She’s a woman who loves jewelry, because we can own it, but it owns us too. And this is a strength for Valéry.