Estelle Dévé’s mission is to create everyday jewellery for extraordinary women. A designer, creative consultant and the founder of eponymous jewellery brand Dévé, she draws inspiration from an eclectic inner library of references, including architecture, photography, modernist furniture and sculpture. An ambassador for the refined woman of both style and substance, Estelle’s “modern artefacts” are celebrations of those who possess a curious and passionate mind.
01 A CRAFT THAT FASCINATES ME IS
ceramics. I did a course a couple of years ago and it’s such a complicated craft with so many opportunities to fail in the process. You need to accept that you’ll probably fail over and over again but that you’ll learn from your mistakes.
*Pictured here: vase by Valentine Schlegel, c.1950s.
02 SOMETHING I HOPE TO PASS ON IS
some of my designs in solid gold. I feel like they might have more sentimental value than something I’ve purchased. So far, I’ve only designed in solid gold for private clients, never for myself, so that’s something I’m very much looking forward to working on.
03 THE DESIGN ERA I AM ALWAYS DRAWN TO IS
post-war modernism. It is baffling to me how the 1930s have shaped the design world as we know it today and how designs created then are still relevant almost a century later.
*Pictured here: interior by Charlotte Perriand c.1935.
04 MY FAVOURITE NEIGHBOURHOOD, FOR SHOPPING, IS
Hannam-dong in Seoul. I was lucky enough to visit South Korea for almost 3 weeks each year in my last job and I miss it dearly.
05 A DESIGNER WHOSE WORK I NEVER TIRE OF IS
Eileen Gray. Her designs are incredibly modern for the era they were designed in and are permanently on my mood board. The “Non-Conformist Hoops” are named after one of her chair designs*. I'm currently reading her biography: she truly has led a fascinating life.
*Pictured here: Eileen Grey's Non-conformist chair, c.1930.
06 THE LAST RESTAURANT THAT I ATE AT AND LOVED IS
Llewelyn’s Restaurant in Herne Hill. Their lobster & melon gazpacho is the best thing to have ever graced my lips.
07 AN OBJECT I COULD NEVER PART WITH IS
a Picasso lithograph given to me by my great-grandmother. It's a print based on a drawing he sketched on a corner of the tablecloth at a Catalan communist party's meeting in 1953, which my great-grandmother attended. I also own a picture of both of them at the same meeting: two very important objects that remind me of the stories she used to tell me as a kid.
08 TO ME, LUXURY IS
time; surrounding myself with aesthetically beautiful objects and the people I love.
ESTELLE'S FAVOURITE THINGS
01 Picasso's ceramics from his Vallauris era.
02 On Earth we’re briefly gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong.
03 Serge Mouille's vintage lamps.
04 The "Two metres, Five" necklace in gold vermeil.
05 Natalia Altewai's designs for Toteme.