The revived brand presented its first pieces publicly in January, during Couture Week, at its Rue St.-Honoré headquarters. The designs by Ms. de Laage, in the style of Rouvenat, included the Bolt Orissa pendant in 18-karat yellow gold with diamonds and red spinels and a tassel made with rubies from the Orissa mine in India, which closed in the 1930s, and the Bolt Paraiba pendant in 18-karat white gold with Paraiba tourmalines and diamonds. The brand said both pieces sold that month for more than 100,000 euros ($109,000) each.
Its latest high jewelry collection, called Lost, Found, Anew: Rediscovered Treasures, was shown in July in Paris and showcased the Frame ring, in which pavé diamonds circle a center stone, along with iterations of the Bolt pendant necklaces, including one incorporating an original 19th-century brooch by Rouvenat.
In addition to selling at its headquarters and from its website, Rouvenat is now also carried at Dover Street Market London. The brand recently launched a six-month exclusive sales arrangement at Fine Arts Jewellery, a store that the jeweler Shamsa Alabbar opened in July in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Moving forward, Rouvenat plans to begin selling on 1stDibs in October, and considers its next step to be expanding into the United States.
LuxImpact’s founding principles included an ecological approach to jewelry-making, so Rouvenat, like the other LuxImpact brands, uses recycled gold and repurposed gemstones in its pieces. And Claire Portais, another former Cartier executive, has been charged with finding interesting stones from myriad sources for the new creations.
“Two hundred years ago, the goal was to become an industry; today, it’s to become a responsible industry,” Ms. Berthelon Gaviard wrote.
Putting that into practice means that Rouvenat plans to participate in the ReLuxury Fair — dedicated to resale luxury and collectible items and developing initiatives in the circular economy — in Geneva in November. And the brand is now an entreprise à mission, or mission-driven company, meaning that it abides by a French legal framework that lays out a social and environmental purpose with precise sustainability goals.
