Press
Vogue Paris
Place Vendôme, Michel Ermelin, jeweler, reunites with the verve of the big creators of high Parisian tradition.
The artistic value of an object is tightly linked to the recognition of the originality of the signature. Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse will always be a safe bet because of their uniqueness and always recognizable; it is the same for the jewelry signed Verney, which will be, for the collectors of the future times, precious witnesses of their time.
They are pieces of art, of a high originality, as much in the purely esthetic creation as in the technique. Michel Ermelin belongs to the grand lineage of jewelers who believe one should create, innovate, always go further.
His pieces are modern and imaginative; they sublime traditional forms by giving them life: retinal works of geometric spirit, convertible reliefs, simple sets and yet fascinating colors of gems which, mysteriously orchestrated in supple and pure movements, perfectly express the woman of the 20th century.
New volumes of sapphire, emerald, rubies and diamonds fragments… turn around themselves, permitting the coquetry to « change », without having to change jewelry altogether.
Financial Times How To Spend It
"....Codes which were snapped up by women...."
Michel Ermelin, designer and president of Verney, the luxurious but discreet Paris jeweller, has taken daytime diamonds to a new level, designing what he calls: " a necklace for jogging". Running in the lunch hour while wearing Easy river, a fluid stream of rough- cut diamonds of muted, hung with a luscious drop shaped pendant of 3,5 carats, may be a step to far for many but, ladies it's because we're worth it.
"Beaded Jewelry"
Precious beads are bringing a new dimension, fluidity and informality to high jewelry. Vivienne Becker reports. Photography by Jobe Lawrenson.{...} Michel Ermelin, designer, creator and owner of Verney Paris – who produces some of the most exquisite bead and tassel jewels around – loves making a “big show” with hundreds of carats of emerald, sapphire or ruby beads,...adding that “beads are the essence of classical, yet they’re fun, they have humour and movement. They’re alive.”
Luxury Magazine
Place Vendome is a legendary address in the jewelry world, home to both the historic maisons (Chaumet at number 12, Cartier at 23, Boucheron at 26...) as well as the next generation of talent (Lorenz Baumer at number 4). Even ultra-secretive JAR is known to work from an atelier at number 7. But little known except to true connoisseurs is the small in size but big in influence jewelry house at 24, where Michel Ermelin works under the name Verney. Founded in the 1980s, Verney is considered to have invented the “joaillerie classique” style that refers to the new classicism in French jewelry. He also pioneered the use of black gold in his signature Triade ring. And he is still creating extraordinary “heirlooms of the future” today, albeit quietly.
Known for his technical prowess (Verney settings in particular are feat. Place Vendome is a legendary address in the jewelry world, home to both the historic maisons (Chaumet at number 12, Cartier at 23, Boucheron at 26...) as well as the next generation of talent (Lorenz Baumer at number 4). Even ultra-secretive JAR is known to work from an atelier at number 7. But little known except to true connoisseurs is the small in size but big in influence jewelry house at 24, where Michel Ermelin works under the name Verney. Founded in the 1980s, Verney is considered to have invented the “joaillerie classique” style that refers to the new classicism in French jewelry. He also pioneered the use of black gold in his signature Triade ring. And he is still creating extraordinary “heirlooms of the future” today, albeit quietly. Known for his technical prowess (Verney settings in particular are feats
Marc Cholodenko on Michel Ermelin for Vogue
They had warned me : be careful, Michel Ermelin does everything in his power not to talk about himself. It is true that when we find ourself in front of this handsome man, so easy on the eyes, we feel more like talking about anything and everything. After a few minutes spent under the charm, listening to him talk about Place Vendôme as if it were a piece of jewelry – emerald column, sapphire sky and ivory facades
He lands in London, to follow a girl whose parents wanted him far from her (yes, kids, it was still like this 15 years ago!). He launches Ermeline Jewellery, in Beauchamp place where he makes ivory, mother-of-pearl and scale bracelets. It is with a friend that he installs Poiray, rue de la Paix in 1975 with twenty thousand borrowed French francs. Now, after Poiray, Verney, and these creations are timeless. No doubt, Ermelin knows how to give his jewels the life that only genuine artistes have the gift to inspire: an existence which belongs not the the past, neither to the future, but to the present, a present that only their talent is capable of making eternal. These pieces are of today, but this today could have been ten thousand years ago and would not have moved a bit after ten thousand news years will have past.
He starts talking: “You see, it was a necklace made of two hundred twenty emeralds of a carat and a half, cut in trapeze; as it is open and there had to be a rocking part in order to swing it around the neck, we hid the opening mechanism inside the stones, in order to obtain the most simple line. That was an invisible movements watch, with a height of eighty centimeters, in crystal, steel and rubies. It took us three years to make. [...] There does not exist a higher one. This one was a fun necklace. The octagonal segments are linked with rings of gold, which conceal the axis that make they turn on themselves, in one evening, the jewel will have gone by all the colors of a rainbow. I ask him why he speaks of his pieces in the past tense. “You see, they have been sold. And all of my jewels are unique pieces.”
It is unsurprising that the collectors of the first hour (New York, Tokyo) follow his creations by the minute. He signs his aphorisms on an art “relatively anonymous of the 20th century.”
Anonymous, that’s what he says. Those who enjoy genuine jewels have known Ermelin for a while and know it is thanks to them that, since last September, the timeless spirit of the great, the Toussaint and the Cartier who he loves to cite, has again installed itself, under the name Verney, on place Vendôme.
Solitaire Magazine Hong Kong
With a passion for fine gemstones and an inclination for rigid simplicity, Parisian designer Michel Ermelin has created what he describes as the new classicism of high jewelry — one-of-kind pieces that have helped redefine the design boundaries of French jewelry. Creating under the brand Verney, which he launched in 1980 in Place Vendôme, Michel won his design struggle to put exquisite gemstones at centre stage in each jewel when he decided to use black gold to make the settings disappear, a controversial decision at the time.
It is this contrast between the colorful gemstones and the understated setting that defines a Verney piece. “My design intention and the sole purpose of each piece is to generate an emotion,” shares Michel. With a passion for fine gemstones and an inclination for rigid simplicity, Parisian designer Michel Ermelin has created what he describes as the new classicism of high jewelry — one-of-kind pieces that have helped redefine the design boundaries of French jewelry. Creating under the brand Verney, which he launched in 1980 in Place Vendôme, Michel won his design struggle to put exquisite gemstones at centre stage in each jewel when he decided to use black gold to make the settings disappear, a controversial decision at the time. It is this contrast between the colorful gemstones and the understated setting that defines a Verney piece. “My design intention and the sole purpose of each piece is to generate an emotion,” shares Michel.