Hide and seek: inside the intricate world of Parisian jeweller Elie Top

The left side shows a sitting man and the right side shows Jewellery

(Image credit: Fabrice Fouillet)

It’s an age-old fine jeweller’s delight to include hidden elements in special pieces, just as Elie Top has done with his debut collection. Pictured (right) is Top in his maison's first salon, where a 1970s Ettore Sottsass chandelier pinpoints jewels in a glass vitrine built into the lacqured anthracite-top table by Maison Darré, while the custom made carpet reflects the house's logo.

What makes Elie Top’s eponymous jewellery designs so compelling is their secret nature. It’s an age-old fine jeweller’s delight to include hidden elements in special pieces, giving the wearer a unique sense of knowing something about their jewellery that only they know and that others can’t see.

To that effect, Top’s bracelets, earrings and necklaces contain an intricately worked element. But the covert nature of his articulated designs is not subtly secret. More in keeping with the horologist’s craft, once discovered, they take the wearer and the viewer in a new direction, suggesting a story that neither could possibly know.

As Vincent Darré, designer of Top’s Rue St Honore salon, featured in our September issue (W*198) , says: 'To capture the mood of Elie’s jewellery is to realise that it has an almost metaphysical nature – like the sign of your horoscope,' he explains. 'Planets and stars and the mechanical narrative make his designs not like jewellery but often more like horology. It’ a real universe.'

Earing jewellery — What makes Top’s eponymous jewellery designs so compelling is its secret nature

Earrings — To that effect, Top’s bracelets, earrings and necklaces contain an intricately worked element

But the covert nature of his articulated designs is not subtly secret. More in keeping with the horologist’s craft, once discovered, they take the wearer and the viewer in a new direction, suggesting a story that neither could possibly know

Room with hanging chandelier and table and chairs — The salon's 1930s frosted glass doors provide a grand entrance to his showroom.

As Vincent Darré, designer of Top’s Rue St Honore salon, featured in our September issue (W*198) , says: 'To capture the mood of Elie’s jewellery is to realise that it has an almost metaphysical nature – like the sign of your horoscope,' he explains

Golden rings — 'Planets and stars and the mechanical narrative make his designs not like jewellery but often more like horology. It’ a real universe,' adds Darré

Neckless jewellery — Top is perhaps best known for his role as Lanvin's accessories director, single-handedly changing the way we viewed costume jewellery in the noughties

Golden stone rings jewellery — 'Mécaniques Célestes' unites Top's love of costume jewellery's bold statement-making power with the intricate mechanics of exceptional fine jewellery

Caragh McKay is a contributing editor at Wallpaper* and was watches & jewellery director at the magazine between 2011 and 2019. Caragh’s current remit is cross-cultural and her recent stories include the curious tale of how Muhammad Ali met his poetic match in Robert Burns and how a Martin Scorsese Martin film revived a forgotten Osage art.