Tech-savvy Tournaire features your home--on a ring

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Tech-savvy Tournaire features your home--on a ring

By Teresa Novellino

May 07, 2009

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This "Florida Home" ring was custom-made by Philippe Tournaire.

New York--There are numerous jewelry designers who take inspiration from architecture, but few do so quite as literally as French jewelry designer Philippe Tournaire, who crafts miniatures of actual buildings into 18-karat gold and platinum rings.

Tournaire Paris, which operates a retail boutique on the ritzy Place Vendome in Paris, is introducing its architectural collections, including "Villa de Reve," "Metropolis" and "Marelie Baroque," to the U.S. market at the Couture show, May 28-June 2, at the Wynn in Las Vegas.

Handmade from 18-karat gold, platinum and precious stones, the rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces in the collections mimic the design of architectural dazzlers from around the world, such as the Prieure Saint-Roman in France, as seen in the Roman ring, and the Big Apple's skyline, as seen in "Manhattan." Both are from the Villa de Reve collection, which means "dream home" in French, but the hope is that the concept will gain a greater global platform.

"The idea is to develop the brand outside of France," said Frederic Saint Romain, the company president, who visited New York to show the collection to the press in April.

Tournaire isn't completely new to the American market: The unveiling at Couture will follow up on the brand's debut six months ago at the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Bal Harbour, Fla.

But the calling card that really separates Tournaire apart is custom work, which includes creating pieces for clients who want a particular building--often their own residences--made into a ring. This was not necessarily a simple task.

In his attempts to create precious-metal and gemstone versions of private villas and sprawling country estates for his well-heeled clients, Tournaire ran into a problem. Unless the clients happen to be as high profile as, say, A-list couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes--whose residence is listed as a stop on one of Hollywood's celebrity helicopter tours--aerial images of the home are unlikely to be available.

To solve this problem, Tournaire turned to Google Earth, which uses satellite imagery and aerial photography to display bird's-eye views of buildings, small and large, worldwide. This allows the designer to see the building from every angle and create the jewelry to match.

For rings, the shank is flattened so that in addition to being worn as a ring, it can also be propped up in the home as a piece of art, Saint Romain said.

Tournaire isn't an architect, but for 38 years he was a world traveler who fell in love with the splendor of the different architecture he discovered, from the intricately crafted Arabic doors of the Middle East to the soaring columns outside New York's Grand Central Station, and wanted to re-create what he saw in jewelry, Saint Romain said.

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