About a year ago, I was invited to brunch with a group of some trendy Parisians ladies that I hadn’t met yet at the Marché Saint Honoré – opposite me sat a girl with long dark shiny shampoo-tv-commercial type hair wearing a large pair of Channel sunglasses and bling-bling that I couldn’t take my eyes off! Asking her where she got her fabulous necklace, bracelet, ring and earrings she just smiled and said, “they’re mine, hi my name is Vanessa Tugendhaft”.As it turns out, the Paris based charming miss Tugendhaft comes from diamond-capital Belgium and the creation of fine jewelry runs in her blood – she is the 9th generation of a family of diamond merchants and jewelry creators. So when it comes to creating gems, she is as authentic as they come and whose inherit passion is clearly evident in her fabulous eye catching creations.
I decided that I just had to write about her, because after all, it is jewelry that speaks to me! So I caught up with Vanessa last week for a lunch, a chat, a browse around some Parisian boutiques and then for a quick stop in her office in the prestigious 16th district of Paris on rue de Longchamp to view some of her beauties…
She launched her first creation in 2005 called ‘Identity’ which soon turned into an icon so strong that today it is synonymous with the Vanessa Tugenhaft brand. Basically she took the idea of the red Kabbalah string that is worn around the wrist and turned it into a charm bracelet to cherish for life by delicately placing a single diamond in the middle of the red string. Needless to say jewelry lovers and even celebs such as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Demi Moore and Adriana Karembeu went crazy for this concept and of course other jewelry brands tried copying this idea – so if it doesn’t say ‘VT’ on the tag, then it’s just not the real thing!
Following the success of ‘Identity’, her second line ‘Precious’ is ‘an ode to the modern woman who is elegant and dreamy’. Having been appeared in countless magazines and fashion fares, her work clearly inspires women and orders for custom made jewelery from celebs the world over are made and one can find her jewellery from Japan to Morocco to South Africa to New York and of course Paris!
Over the year I got to know Vanessa more and more and learned 2 important things about her – the first is that she has a large group of stunning, vivacious and sophisticated girlfriends and the second, whether it’s intentional or not, each piece in her creations seem to reflect this very sparkling nature of her girlfriends.
I also recently found out that both Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson are fans of Vanessa Tugendhaft jewelry – this makes perfect sense as both these Hollywood stunners epitomize the very vibrant and stylish spirit of her creations.
Vanessa Tugendhaft is about having fun at being glamorous; it’s about the sassy international woman who values European finesse and it’s about hanging out with the girls on a warm Parisian summer afternoon!
I decided that I just had to write about her, because after all, it is jewelry that speaks to me! So I caught up with Vanessa last week for a lunch, a chat, a browse around some Parisian boutiques and then for a quick stop in her office in the prestigious 16th district of Paris on rue de Longchamp to view some of her beauties…
She launched her first creation in 2005 called ‘Identity’ which soon turned into an icon so strong that today it is synonymous with the Vanessa Tugenhaft brand. Basically she took the idea of the red Kabbalah string that is worn around the wrist and turned it into a charm bracelet to cherish for life by delicately placing a single diamond in the middle of the red string. Needless to say jewelry lovers and even celebs such as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Demi Moore and Adriana Karembeu went crazy for this concept and of course other jewelry brands tried copying this idea – so if it doesn’t say ‘VT’ on the tag, then it’s just not the real thing!
Following the success of ‘Identity’, her second line ‘Precious’ is ‘an ode to the modern woman who is elegant and dreamy’. Having been appeared in countless magazines and fashion fares, her work clearly inspires women and orders for custom made jewelery from celebs the world over are made and one can find her jewellery from Japan to Morocco to South Africa to New York and of course Paris!
Over the year I got to know Vanessa more and more and learned 2 important things about her – the first is that she has a large group of stunning, vivacious and sophisticated girlfriends and the second, whether it’s intentional or not, each piece in her creations seem to reflect this very sparkling nature of her girlfriends.I also recently found out that both Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson are fans of Vanessa Tugendhaft jewelry – this makes perfect sense as both these Hollywood stunners epitomize the very vibrant and stylish spirit of her creations.
Vanessa Tugendhaft is about having fun at being glamorous; it’s about the sassy international woman who values European finesse and it’s about hanging out with the girls on a warm Parisian summer afternoon!
Vanessa at work…
