Didier Peiro : Hand sewn jewels.

Interview from luxe-magazine.com March 13 2007

When Didier Peiro accessorises a dress, he goes by only one creed : choose the real thing, hone the details, give it something exceptional. This is what has made his reputation among fashion designers and his clients from all over the world.

First a craftsman, then an artist.
Didier hasn't followed the typical path to becoming a fashion designer or jeweller. Son of a cabinetmaker, Didier studied cabinetmaking and either by heritage or desire to please his father, became a qulified cabinetmaker by the age of 18. Very soon he realised that cabinetmaking would not satisfy his needs. Despite his feeling for wood, and the pleasure of fashioning wood, one essential aspect of art was missing : free artistic creation.
A second factor became obvious to him : "My life will not be spent in France." Didier needed to discover new lands, to travel. So instead of travelling around France, as an aprentice as his father has done, he stepped out further and made a life of travel. Nothing pleases him more than meeting people.
First stop : Bangui in Central Africa où where a friend was working at a cooperative. Originally planning to stay for 3 weeks, he ended up staying 6 months working short contracts, odd jobs, and visiting the pygmees. He gets "an eyefull"...but has to come back to France, due to illness. The bug had taken hold of him however, and as soon as he recovered, he realised he "had to leave" again.

Stone discovery.
In order to finance his travels, Didier must "do business". He brought back everything he could from distant countries to be sold in France. From furniture to jewel, the globe trotter brings back discoveries to his clients from Burkhina, Mali, Niger, Tchad, Mauritania, South Africa, Tanzania, the Reunion Island, Birmania, Pakistan, Thailand, China...
Then a Madagascar came up. He fell in love with the country, and felt "there were things to be done" in this country so rich in many ways. He ended up staying 8 years, discovering gemstones thanks to a french gemologist who unveiled the passion for gems in Didier. The gems brought Didier to jewellery. The artist who had been sleeping in him finally has the means to express himself. He launches himself in the fine art of jewellery.
One coup d'etat later, in 1996, he repatriates to France with his Breton wife and daughter, setting up shop in Nantes. He launches several shops and opens a workshop in India, then in Malta. However, as exceptionality has already lit a spark in him, he contacts haute couture houses to show his work. His ceations are met with immediate success.

Hand sewn.
Among those who particularly appreciate his and oriental insipiration and refined baroque tastes are Elie Saab, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, the Japanese Empress's designer Jun Ashida and recentely Eymeric François.
As always, an insatiable traveller, he often goes back to India, "back to where I learned about jewellery" , bringing back gems and "real antique pendants" that he has replated in fine gold back in Paris. Then the creator assembles, mounts, in a cascade of gold, silver, or vermeil, peridot, calcedoine, emeralds, rubuies, cultured pearls, aigue marine... the gemstones are associated with antique symbols to make heavy bracelets, necklaces or corsets.
Another more "*couture*" style that Didier has developped is sewing pink quartz and other amethysts onto a lace base, reworked with sequins or onto "guepieres" hung on satin ribons. Besides the marked oriental tones, Didier Peiro's jewellery sets are distingushed by their asymetry because "life is never balanced to exactness is it?"

Refined excellence.
"Excellence in refinery is in the perfection of detail" Didier the perfectionist likes to declare. A profession of faith that he chants like a motto. Which can be otherwise be translated as "one can always do better" whether for embellishing an evening gown or ornamenting a wedding dress.
An eternal quest that characterises him as does the same quest in affection. "I apprroached the designers through my love of women, to please them." A need for maternel love, love from women, his daughters, his girlfriends who bring him to work on fashion shows, "which require extreme precision" or in a studio to accessorise a client's outfit.

"By far, I prefer ceating for a client."
Creating unique peices is what enables him to give total freedom to his imagination and subtility. "I first need to know who she is, and what the event is, and who else will be there. I need to know her skin tone, the colour of her eyes. Its beyond making jewellery, its almost psychoanalysis."
Very talented in all these elements,, Didier doesn't ask for a deposit, nor requests. "I make it, I create the jewellery, I dont show any sketches, or rough ideas. Nobody, ever has refused any of his creations. "For the budget, I make an estimate when I see the dress. I know what my clients are sensitive to, to what quality of gems, as for example, for the heiress to the throne of Tunisia."

Search for the green diamond.
Once the Haute Couture shows are over, the traveller leaves again for Malta où where he has a workshop before going to the Gulf où where he has projects for shops, then on to China where his clients are organising a fashion show for him in Canton, in March. Then he will stop off in India to unearth more marvels. Because what makes him tremble besides creativity and love, is gemstones. "When I buy gems, I am always on a quest for the green diamond. Gems make me tremble, they are spellbinding, charged with something. Gems are not inert material, I respect them."
Rest assured, Didier is often in Paris. His beautiful clients couldn't stand for him to forget them, even for the most glistening carafe corks.

Original article in French by Véronique GUICHARD
English translation by Charlotte Yonge.