What Dinh Van is known for
Paris jewelry house founded in 1965 by Jean Dinh Van, a former decade-long Cartier designer, after his 'Deux Perles' ring for Pierre Cardin established his geometric style. Known for the Menottes handcuff-clasp collection; boutique on rue Bonaparte since 2000.
Jean Dinh Van, born in 1927 in Boulogne-sur-Mer to a French mother and a Vietnamese father who worked as a lacquer artisan, trained at the École des Arts Décoratifs before joining Cartier, where he spent roughly a decade working under Jeanne Toussaint on pieces for an elite clientele, including the Duchess of Windsor. In 1965 he left to found his own maison, opening a workshop on Place Gaillon in Paris. His breakthrough piece was the 'Deux Perles' ring, designed that same year for Pierre Cardin — a square-form ring set with two pearls that established the geometric, structural design language he continued to develop. In 1967 dinh van was selected as one of four French jewelry houses to exhibit at Montreal's Expo 67, a showing that led to a distribution arrangement with Cartier's New York branch, the house where he had trained. The maison's best-known line, Menottes, takes its name from the French word for handcuffs: rather than concealing the clasp of a bracelet or necklace, Dinh Van made two interlocking rings joined by a chain into the visible centerpiece of the piece. His broader approach was to make jewelry meant for daily wear rather than only formal occasions, a departure from more ceremonial luxury jewelry conventions of the period. The house opened a boutique on rue Bonaparte on Paris's Left Bank in 2000.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — The Menottes handcuff-clasp jewelry, 1960s Parisian modernism in gold
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