THE DINH VAN MAISON

In 1965, Jean Dinh Van founded a completely unexpected jewelry brand, where he crafted metal pieces by hand like a sculptor. His vision: to sublimate everyday objects in order to create jewelry that may be worn by everyone, every day.

The adventure of an iconoclast

Key dates

19
27
Birth of Jean Dinh Van.
50
Jean Dinh Van joined Cartier®, where he stayed for 8 years.
65
Jean Dinh Van founds his company.
Creation of the “Deux perles” ring for Pierre Cardin, the first jewellery success.
67
Selected among the top 4 French jewelers to exhibit his creations at the Montreal World's Fair. Jean Dinh Van signs an agreement with Cartier.
70
Creation of the first cord jewelry. First point of sale at the Publicis Drugstore on the Champs Elysées.
76
Creation of the Menottes dinh van collection.
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Creation of the perfect bracelet, one devoid of ornamentation and lightened of all mechanism: its bangle. Serrure.
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Le Cube Diamant, a design that plays on fullness and emptiness, combining circles and squares.
76
80’s
Expansion of the brand with the opening of boutiques in New York, Geneva and Brussels.
91
Creation of the Pi.
98
Jean Dinh Van took over the destiny of the House and remained Artistic Director for over ten years.
20
00
Opening of a boutique on rue Bonaparte in Paris - Rive Gauche.
01
Creation of the Seventies collection.
03
Exhibition dedicated to Jean Dinh Van at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs - the Deux Perles ring enters the personal gallery of contemporary jewelry.
17
Creation of the Pulse collection.
In the beginning, the gesture of Jean Dinh Van, an artisan jeweller. Shaping and moulding, he reworked materials until the perfect balance and proportions were struck in every one of his creations. He first honed this artistry in his early years. After graduating from the École des Arts Décoratifs, he worked (as did his father before him) for Cartier, where he evolved at Jeanne Toussaint’s side. For ten years, he nurtured his creative talent there, working on exceptional creations and unique jewellery destined for an affluent clientele of socialites.
The gesture guided by instinct
Serrure, the perfect bangle
The starting point of this essential collectionwas Jean Dinh Van’s all-consuming desire tocreate the perfect bangle, devoid of ornamentationand unburdened by bulky mechanisms. Like a sculptor, he begins by working with his hands to create this form. He studies its plasticity, elasticity and resistance, until he arrives at the perfect equation of a gold wire supple enough to open and rigid enough not to deform. Unadorned, all it took was a light tap with a hammer to flatten the end and add a lock-like clasp.
Pi, the sculpted object by excellence
A circle as the beginning of an Odyssey of success - that could be the short summary of the Pi story. When Jean Dinh Van first fashioned this primitive gold disc, he designed it in 18-carat gold, perfectly smooth and free of any rough edges. This round shape immediately embodies the geometric vocabulary so dear to the company as a symbol of infinity and idealism.
Maillon, function creates design
For Jean Dinh Van, the link is the starting point for his work as a jewelry sculptor, building his own vocabulary that transgresses the codes of the Place Vendôme. A perfectionist driven by geometric and minimalist figures, he reworks the form until he finds the perfect proportions for this element as essential as it is complex. Jean Dinh Van sculpts an original relief inspired by the links that adorn the Place de l'Opéra, rectangular and softened at the corners: the first square-section link, the Maillon Dinh Van.

A gifted visionary, his pioneering nature was also reflected in his distribution decisions. He was quickly selected as one of the four most talented French jewellers and was asked to hold an exhibition in Montreal. On this occasion, Dinh Van was spotted by Cartier New York, and together they signed a distribution agreement immediately after. Even today, he remains one of only a few creators to have collaborated on unique pieces. His story had come full circle: the Maison where he was first trained had now become his springboard to the rest of the world.

 

The dinh van Maison was born.

THE 60'S, THE JEWELRY REVOLUTION

A man of his times, he thrived on the new trends spreading across Paris and Europe in the mid-1960s.

Amid this creative whirlwind, he discovered that design—much like fashion or the writing of young talented artists—could explore new frontiers of expression: the Bauhaus, the sculptor César, the author Françoise Sagan, or even the biggest names in couture, like Courrèges and his first mini skirt or Yves Saint-Laurent, the «little prince» of haute couture who invented the modern version of luxury ready-to-wear. With jewellery still untouched by this revolution, Jean Dinh Van decided to seize change and began to dream of something new. Why was jewellery still stuck in boxes if fashion was taking to the streets? How could he invent jewellery that wasn’t just meant for special occasions?


Through his creative genius, the young troublemaker succeeded in combining modern design with a particular brand of simplicity. He made his first ideas a reality in 1965, reinventing perceptions of precious jewellery. Dinh Van’s jewellery designs were highly wearable yet incredibly sophisticated; sophisticated in their details, but above all in their material, gold, which he cherished more than anything and celebrated with every breakthrough.

THE DINH VAN CLAN

Thanks to his Parisian social networks, Jean Dinh Van met numerous personalities such as Pierre Cardin, Paco Rabanne, César, etc... who would play a role in the Maison’s history.

And also Marie-Françoise Bleustein-Blanchet, daughter of the founder of Publicis, displayed his pieces in the Publicis Drugstore, which became the first ever outlet to sell his brand.

THE DAILY LIFE, AN ETERNAL INSPIRATION

Jean Dinh Van had always been unfettered by traditional features of jewellery. Stoking his rebellious side, he drew inspiration from everyday objects around him. Purely functional items with simple appearances (a key, a lock, a razor blade or even a drawing pin) were raised to the rank of precious motifs, finding grandeur in their metal form.

 

Without hesitation, Jean Dinh Van revolutionised and reinterpreted the codes of luxury with creations that were both simple and bold, acquiring before others a taste for authenticity. At odds with existing definitions of luxury, he wrote his
own through his creations, a luxury made to be understated, not ostentatious, that brought to life pieces of jewellery with essential pared-back designs; jewellery that could be worn every day as trusty companions, objects of affection, suiting any style and every occasion.

While succession had for centuries dictated the destiny of jewellery, Dinh Van invented inclusive pieces that were genderless and ageless. Free of any cultural or historical references, they could be worn indiscriminately by men and women alike, from all generations. Shared rather than inherited, they marked a common admiration for a contemporary aesthetic that tended towards the universal.

THE SCULPTED OBJECT

While other Maisons in the Place Vendôme never dared work without preliminary sketches, Jean Dinh Van started from the material to create his jewellery. He worked the gold instinctively, intuition guiding his hand until the perfect shape was achieved and his idea materialised into a piece, like serendipitous creative encounters obvious only to him. Thus, in a form of iteration, one sculptural prototype after another, he demonstrated the work of an artisan creator.

Jean Dinh Van swam against the current of every jewellery cliché: where rings were round, he made the first square ring, while medallions often featured religious motifs, his were hollowed out in the centre or inspired by industrialisation, introducing tubular shapes that had, at the time, never been seen before in jewellery. 

In the same way, he relished creating new combinations of materials, like gold and steel, and went against something that every other jeweller sought to do: making the clasp as discreet as possible. Jean Dinh Van decided to make it the centrepiece of his jewellery.

Anti-conventional in nature, he thought to pair these precious gold creations with a simple satin string, embodying the concept of uninhibited jewellery. This disruptive blend was in perfect keeping with his desire to reconcile elements that were by their very nature contradictory.

Modern and easy to pair, this style gradually became all the rage and one of the Maison’s greatest successes, thus making jewellery accessible for all.

DINH VAN AND ORNAMENTAL STONES

Brand founder Jean Dinh Van inherited a taste for stonesduring his early years in the Cartier workshops. There, helearned how to work with gold and precious stones, andcreated spectacular pieces for European aristocrats, suchas the Duchess of Windsor.

During his formative years, Jean Dinh Van became interested in raw materials and uncut stones. He began working with metal and sculpting the raw materials to create his own unique repertoire of shapes: sleek, essential, stripped down in appearance, but sophisticated in design.

In 1967, he created the "Deux Perles" ring for Pierre Cardin, a piece that would be "the key to everything that came afterwards". This square ring set with two pearls, one white and one gray, pivoting on the top like a Chinese abacus, is the perfect example of the structural design that is so characteristic of the Dinh Van creations.

Jean Dinh Van remained loyal to classic materials: a lot of metal and particularly, yellow gold. Ornamental stones progressively appeared in Dinh Van’s pieces and were at the origin of iconic creations, such as the "Impression" collection.