He founded his eponymous firm in Paris in 1859 and in eight years' time, he was awarded a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in the City of Light in 1867. He was a groundbreaking designer, a visionary, but also a teacher willing to share his findings, techniques, and innovations with other designers to help create a new chapter in the art form's history. Oscar Massin was a many-faceted designer who created jewelry for royalty, including Empress Eugenie and the Queen of the Netherlands, and introduced groundbreaking mathematical and scientific approaches to jewelry design, especially where concerning metalwork.
And now, the Paris-based LuxImpact—founded in 2020 by Frédéric de Narp and Coralie de Fontenay—is working to revive historic French houses like Oscar Massin alongside brand owners and descendants, all while setting them up for success in the 21st century. Massin passed away in 1913 after his retirement in 1892, yet his pieces are still sought after today. Sandrine de Laage, the Creative Director of LuxImpact and former designer of houses like Cartier and Harry Winston, has taken Mr. Massin's ingenuity and recognizable design motifs like his metal lacework, filigree, and fondness for rose-cut diamonds, and reinterpreted them for today's jewelry collectors.
"I take inspiration from Massin and his original designs are always in the background as I create new pieces in his name," says Sandrine de Laage, Creative Director of LuxImpact. "We spent years digging into archives and consulting with historians to get a more complete picture of Massin and his design codes that continue to instruct mine and other jewelers’ creations today. Each piece holds a snapshot of history, from Massin’s experimentation with settings to gold lacework presented at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1878."
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These new fine jewelry pieces are handcrafted in family-owned ateliers in New York City, with the high jewelry being created in Paris's Place Vendome atelier, and all using totally recycled gold and platinum. LuxImpact is also committed to using only fully traceable, untreated, and climate-neutral Latitude grown diamonds in the new designs, making it the first heritage luxury brand in the United States to do so.
"Oscar Massin the jeweler was an educator, and we aim to continue this legacy and lead the industry by example," says Frédéric de Narp, co-founder and CEO of LuxImpact. "The innovation of grown diamonds is the result of human genius, not unlike the novel ways Massin invented to work with metal and diamonds, incorporating design, art, and science. We can already see the industry taking notice of this shift to make necessary adaptations for our planet’s needs and a recognition of the quality of man-made diamonds, and we are pleased to encourage this critical embrace of change in luxury."
Massin was born in 1829 in Liège, a city in a French-speaking region of Belgium, and began apprenticing with a jeweler at the young age of twelve. In 1851, he moved to Paris to continue his work - he was first employed under Théodore Fester, then Rouvenat and Viette, with whom he made a tiara set with the 140-carat Regent diamond and worn by Empress Eugenie at the Exposition in 1855. That tiara was eventually dismantled, but the Regent diamond is now on display at the Louvre.
These first three new collections of fine jewelry by de Laage are available now, and there will be more collections inspired by Mr. Massin to come later this spring. These additional fine jewelry creations for 2022 will reimagine more of the design signatures of the jeweler, while bridal and high jewelry collections will be added to the offering this year as well.
"Massin was known for finding inspiration across florals and fauna, he invented the flexible stem setting which is highlighted in the Fife tiara, he introduced the phantom setting, and more," says de Laage. "We will be incorporating the many techniques he created, refreshed with a modern take."
Additionally, the LuxImpact team is looking at other French jewelers founded between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, which was a fruitful time of creativity and craftsmanship in France. The Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements were flourishing, and many iconic designs came to be during that time. "In late 2021, LuxImpact and Vever entered a joint venture to revive the House of Vever," says Coralie de Fontenay, co-founder and CEO of LuxImpact. "Following the revival of Oscar Massin this January, we will be introducing another house in the Spring which we cannot disclose yet but are very excited to share with you soon."
