Dinh Van Made Jewellery Break the Rules

From September 3 to 13, Christie’s Paris becomes a time machine. A retrospective curated by renowned jewellery historian Vanessa Cron marks 60 years since Jean Dinh Van redefined what it meant to wear luxury.

This is a meditation on material, form, and the freedom to live outside the expected.

Jean Dinh Van didn’t just design accessories; he sculpted icons. In a time when jewellery was ornate, locked in tradition, and largely for women to display status, Dinh Van introduced something radically different: clean lines, open space, and quiet strength.

His pieces weren’t just beautiful, they were statements, expressions of identity during a decade hungry for change.

Born in 1927 and originally trained at Cartier, Dinh Van’s instincts were always at odds with the over-embellishment of the time. By the late 1960s, amid the cultural ferment of sexual liberation, women’s emancipation, and radical fashion, he was ready to break away.

In 1967, inspired by the architectural elegance of Pierre Cardin, he unveiled his Deux Perles ring — minimalist, sensual, and completely modern.

“Jewellery must no longer be a social code, but a personal language,” he once said.

His collaborations with avant-garde icons like Paco Rabanne and the sculptor César blurred the lines between art and accessory.

Jewellery was no longer a symbol of ownership or tradition; it was wearable sculpture, art for the liberated body.

The retrospective at Christie’s assembles not just jewels, but Dinh Van’s world: archival sketches, rare prototypes, and documents that reveal a deep obsession with form.

It’s complemented by the new book Jewelry Sculptor by Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter (Editions Flammarion), a thoughtful exploration of Dinh Van’s ideas and legacy.

The exhibition also includes a film and re-editions of his emblematic designs; elegant time capsules that still pulse with radical clarity.

His influence wasn't confined to Europe. Spotted at the 1967 Universal Exhibition in Montreal, Dinh Van was invited to lead Cartier’s New York workshops. There, his pieces, co-signed by Cartier, found an eager American audience.

By 1977, he opened his own boutique on Madison Avenue, embedding his signature into the DNA of contemporary luxury.

In today’s world of disposable luxury and fast fashion, Dinh Van’s philosophy is more urgent than ever. He believed in creating for meaning, not for margin.

Every curve in his metalwork was deliberate. Every negative space is intentional. His work asks: What if luxury wasn’t about excess, but about essence?

This mindset resonates with other fields of high design today. A new private villa in the Aegean might not just boast a panoramic view; it may feature handwoven rugs inspired by Cycladic abstraction.

A superyacht may carry onboard galleries curated with kinetic sculpture. Hotels commission custom ceramics or scent installations.

We’re moving beyond opulence toward immersive intentionality, the very idea Dinh Van pioneered in jewellery 60 years ago.

Jean Dinh Van passed away in 2022, but his work endures, not only in museum collections but in the quiet confidence of those who wear his designs today.

His pieces speak in whispers, not shouts. And in a world increasingly loud and algorithmic, that might just be the new luxury.