EXCLUSIVE: Messika High Jewelry Gears Up for Runway Show, Looks Ahead to Madison Avenue Flagship
It’s raining this Paris Fashion Week, but come 9 p.m. on Thursday, the sun will shine — on Messika’s Midnight Sun high jewelry designs, that is.
The French jeweler will be staging a runway show, its fourth, to present a new 30-set chapter in an ongoing collection initiated in 2023.
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After the ’70s and its rhythms, founder and creative director Valérie Messika turned her eye to the ’80s, a period with a high-octane energy she feels fits the brand.
“Diamonds are carbon and carbon is energy,” she said. “When I entered this industry, it was to take diamond down from its pedestal.”
Among the highlights will be the “Thousand Fires” necklace, a piece that required more than 1,500 hours to set with 9,999 diamonds, for a total weight of around 113 carats, on its three fully articulated strands.
Its alternating yellow cushions and emerald-cut diamonds play on the contrast between the former’s brilliance and the sharply modern proportions of the latter. “It’s always the principle of adding breathing space between diamonds to make them legible,” explained Messika.
There will also be a set featuring gradient oval diamonds, with stones between 7 and 25 carats used for the masterpiece necklace that has echoes of Pierre Cardin’s erstwhile seaside mansion, the striking Palais Bulle. “It’s a reinterpretation of the classic rivière necklace but gourmand, extravagant, sensual, feminine,” she said.
For this piece, the jeweler worked in volume, outlining each stone in brushed gold. “It becomes like a big cabochon and we worked on volumes to surround but not overwhelm,” she continued. “There’s also a sliver of space between diamond and metal, for a kind of breather.”
She was particularly proud of these sparklers, cut from a 1,000-carat rough from Botswana, which had also yielded the stones for 2022’s Akh-Ba-Ka high jewelry set.
While Messika demurred on who might be part of this year’s cast, previous shows have seen the likes of Naomi Campbell and Carla Bruni.
As for the front rows, they’ve included Ashley Graham and Kate Moss, who partnered with the French brand on a co-signed high jewelry collection.
Beyond the brand’s glittering runway, the picture for luxury at large is a markedly dimmer one.
It’s a reality Messika is very aware of.
“When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re always worried by default,” she quipped at an exclusive preview. “If things go well, you’re worrying and when the outlook isn’t so good, you’re still worried.”
Still, in this instance, she has reasons to feel more sure-footed than most.
“Messika has a place because I think we have a jewelry proposal that’s different and well placed in terms of quality and historic legitimacy that’s bigger than our age thanks to my father [reputable diamond dealer André Messika],” she said. “When you want a diamond jewel, you come to Messika because you can benchmark against our competitors but also because you will find a wider range.”
And the slowdown in luxury consumption isn’t fazing her. If anything, it was something already on the horizon when the post-pandemic euphoria faded.
“In my opinion, luxury has very good days ahead of it,” she said. “If a house has legitimacy on a good product, with good communication – like we have today – there’s no reason to fall behind just because things are a little bit more challenging right now.”
The position Messika has carved over the past two decades is of a maverick brand that puts natural diamonds on silk cords and wants jewelry to stay out of the safe.
“What I’d like is for Messika to be seen as a luxury house with its unique know-how and expertise in diamond, while being the expression of self-assured femininity, a brand that gives impulse and youth to a deeply storied industry,” said the founder.
It’s a recipe that’s worked well so far.
Sales reached $120 million in 2019 and since the pandemic, the company has more than doubled its turnover. According to data shared by the company, 50 percent of its turnover is from Europe, a quarter comes from the Middle East, while the Americas and Asia each take between 10 to 15 percent.
High jewelry, which was launched a decade ago with 10 sets, now accounts for 10 percent of the business. The runway shows have translated into tangible sales, said Messika, putting the proportion of sets sold at around 60 percent in the immediate aftermath.
Retail doors and store openings have come at a steady clip, totaling some 600 points of sale and 90 Messika boutiques in 85 countries.
Another 15 are in the cards in 2024, with a new flagship on the Champs-Elysées in July, and the first store on the African continent in Casablanca, Morocco. The goal is to double the number of boutiques within five years.
By country, France remains the bedrock. “Our core market remains France,” said Messika. “It’s not a market for image alone, it’s a real business market.”
“We have a very nice position, one we’d like to keep because we are very aware a downfall can go fast,” she continued.
While she describes the business approach as “prudent, because [Messika] is a family business and proudly so,” the founder said the company was also keen to leverage opportunities.
At a time where the Asian market, particularly in mainland China, is sputtering — “we were lucky to succeed without China,” said the founder — it’s the U.S. that is fizzing.
Hence the French company’s next project: a flagship on Madison Avenue, slated for 2025.
While details are under wraps, this opening will be on par with the Rue de la Paix flagship, in terms of size and ambition, the company said.
“It will be an important milestone because it’s very well placed and we need a flagship in a city like New York,” said Messika.
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