While there is no one metric that we can use to determine what makes one jewelry designer the best and the rest not too worthy of a spot at the top of the list, we can all agree that some jewelry designers are just a lot better than others.
But then again, we are subjective beings, and what is spectacular work by one jewelry designer might not be all that to some people.
Some designers are crowd favorites, no matter who you ask, and if you are looking for the best designers of jewelry, these are the names that will always show up on top of your list.
In this article, we’ll share will you details of the top 10 best jewelry designers.
Who is the best jewelry designer?
At the end of the day, well-known jewelry designers display the great talent and a knack for unique pieces that are loved by just about every jewelry lover.
Their ability to appeal to the masses through the simple jewelry designs that they come up with is something worth celebrating, and it’s also the reason why it’s rather complex to determine exactly who that one best designer is.
For most of us, there are many jewelry designers that we love and appreciate and just can’t pick a single name off a list of many exemplary designers.
And since we cannot pick just one jewelry designer, we’ll be sharing with you a list of the best 10 famous jewelry designers that are revered in the jewelry world.
These are among the most famous jewelry designers who we’ve handpicked from different countries.
Famous jewelry designers list
In the search for the best and the most famous jewelry designers, the nature of their creative designs and the assemblage of their art is that one thing that determines how easily and fasts a designer is top-rated.
At the end of the day, the best jewelry designers are also the greatest artists, which is why this list of the most famous jewelry designers is more or less a curated list of the greats in the art world.
Of course, their expertise matters too, with the jewelers who have been around for decades often taking the coveted top spots.
Of course, the kind or type of jewelry they create is equally important.
The designers listed below are some of the most famous ones, and anyone wearing their pieces is guaranteed endless compliments and top conversations at the next party. So, who are these famous jewelry designers?
1.Suzanne Belperron
You’re probably just reading about this jewelry designer for the first time here, but what you may know is that Suzanne is the most important jewelry designer of all time, and she’s known for creating the most iconic aesthetics in the bold and curvaceous Belperron designs.
And one look at her creations will convince you that she was right when she noted that Her Style is Her Signature. What’s her signature style?
Well, Belperron is widely known for the use of unusually-cared hardstones like rock crystals, rose quartz, and chalcedony as the primary mounting materials for the rings and bracelets.
She’d go on to push her workshops to create intricately designed stone-set pieces featuring varied and large stone cuts, with each mount handcrafted to ensure a perfect fit for the individual stones.
She’s also known for her iconic bib necklace made with the irregular ovoid rubies that were interspersed with the best of diamonds that were bezel-set in platinum, The result of her work is some of the most magnificent works that looked just as good as a painting.
As one of the most revered jewelry creators held in high regard by editors, fashion designers, and even haute couture wearers, Belperron is one of the few jewelry designers whose work has been collected by the likes of Elsa Schiaparelli, Daisy Fellowes, the Duchess of Windsor, Diana Vreeland, and even Karl Lagerfeld.
Her work is often worn by people who understand that jewelry and clothing can be art.
2.Cartier
Cartier is, without a doubt, one of the biggest and the most popular names in the designer jewelry world, thanks to their uniquely designed pieces of jewelry that often define a particular style or era. Cartier also stands out because they are the one jewelry designer that has mastered pretty much all kinds of stones and materials in jewelry making.
Along with the fact that the Cartier family is one of the dynasties that spans centuries with some of the best quality, and affordable pieces of silver, including one-of-a-kind exquisitely designed bejeweled creations that were made for the European and Maharajas royalties, Cartier is one of the world-famous jewelry designers that anyone would want to wear.
Cartier had the best designers and workshops that had access to some of the broadest libraries of art books, including Persian miniatures, all that was used as a source of inspiration. One of the unique pieces of jewelry by Cartier is the black bracelet with a three-leaf design, a nice, exotic decorative style punctuated with emeralds and lustrous pearls for a stark finish in a black and white palette.
3.Van Cleef & Arpels
Known for the most gorgeous and elegant creations, Van Cleef & Arpels takes pride in the creation of jewelry with some rather unusual stone cuts, alongside unique design innovations like the invisible settlings, the zip necklace, and the minaudiere.
The designer is also known for exquisite marquise-cut pieces known as the navette.
This piece is a fringe diamond necklace showcasing the VCA-layered stone cuts, which will accentuate the features of the necklace, including the stone’s geometry, resulting in the most luxurious and elegant creations that feel and looks modern. This piece is wearable today.
4.Boivin
Jeanne Boivin is the other well-known jewelry designer who became the principal designer for Boivin after the demise of her husband in 1917. Jeanne was the brand’s female director but also the couturier Paul Poiret’s sister. Together, they created masterpieces, and it is Jeanne that gave Susazze Belperron the start/ push she needed in the jewelry design world.
Jeanne was also behind Juliette Moutard and working together; these three women came up with some of the biggest and the most important jewelry pieces boasting strong sculptural styles, all based on nature.
Boivin’s pinnacle piece was the starfish brooch that was later purchased by Claudette Colbert, who was then (the 1930s) the most popular Hollywood star. A version of the brooch was later worn by Millicent Rogers, who was photographed with the piece for Vogue.
And between 1937 and 1945, Boivin’s star was photographed 4 times for the leading magazines and in cutting-edge fashion.
5.Mikimoto
Mikimoto is a leading luxury pearl jewelry company that was founded by the jewelry designer Mikimoto Kokichi. Kokichi is credited for creating/ making the first-ever freshwater cultured pearl. Subsequently, the first Mikimoto store would be opened in 1899 in Tokyo, Japan, before its expansion to Paris, London, Bombay, and New York, among other cities.
It was also Japan’s first jewelry store to gain recognition and fame internationally.
Today, Mikimoto is well-known for its wide range of the most exquisite pearls available in simple and also the most elegant designs. You can find elaborate pearl jewelry designs by the brand as well.
The other notable thing about Mikimoto is that this brand was the official jeweler for the 2003-2008 Miss USA pageants, as well as the Miss Universe pageants between 2002 and 2007.
5.Jean Després
Jean Després was born to a family of creatives, consisting of some of the most prominent jewelers who would go on to influence his experiences, not just as a jewelry designer but also as an airplane designer for World War II.
The airplane designs played a huge role in his work as a jewelry designer, with his carefully crafted drafts of the machines inspiring the jewelry design pieces that were dubbed the bijoux-moteurs.
One of these pieces was the iconic bracelet. The bijoux-moteurs is one of the iconic examples of Art Moderne designs that featured the combination of the simplest yet powerful jewelry designs that were inspired by machines.
His designs have been shown to powerfully evoke the teeth of massive gears, with the bracelet design tapering down into perfect alignment with the slimming of the wearer’s wrist. Though subtle, this design is a powerful design adjustment that acknowledges that the bracelet is a massive cuff meant to be worn as an elegant, decorative piece on the wrist.
7.Gérard Sandoz
Although Gérard Sandoz was only around for a very brief moment between 1920 and 1931 during the Art Deco period, his jewelry designs were fantastic. Gérard Sandoz is remembered as a restless and charming character that was known for his love for parties. He’d later leave the jewelry-making business to the family, going on to a modest career in the film industry.
His pieces of jewelry are the purest exploration of the geometric shapes in jewelry design, combined with the use of varied colors, materials, and finishes, all combined to create some very complex layered shapes. Sandoz noted that it was very much possible to create beautiful jewelry using just gold and diamonds (rivers of diamonds).
He also created pieces from platinum, besides gold.
8.Bulgari
Bulgari or Bvlgari is one of the biggest and the most popular Italian luxury fashion brands that is known for the best of jewelry, fragrances, watches, and hotels. What you may not know is that this brand was founded in 1881 by a Greek jeweler known as Sotirios Bulgaris. Over the years, the company grew, especially through the 20th century, becoming a leading international brand.
Bulgari is well known for its architectural metalwork with jewelry mostly made of heavy steel and gold links. Their jewelry is also easily recognized by the colored gemstones and/or diamonds, with Serpenti as one of their most iconic designs. This jewelry design was made into a collection of watches and jewelry pieces that were made in the coiling snake shape decorated with several pave gemstones. Note that the brand’s trademark BVLGARI is in the Latin alphabet.
One of the names that made Bulgari jewelry even more popular was Elizabeth Taylor. She expressed and was famous for her love for the brand’s jewelry. As proof of her love, Elizabeth Taylor had a rather extensive collection of gemstone and diamond pieces by Bulgari, and these pieces had all been custom-made for her. The Serpenti bracelet, for example, was customized perfectly, and it was made to look as if the bracelet was slithering up her arm. Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry was displayed at the 125th-anniversary exhibition by Bulgari.
9.Buccellati
Buccellati, better known as Buccellati Holding Italia, is a popular Italian Jewelry brand that also specialized in watches. Besides Italy, there also are Buccellati stores in many cities of the world, such as London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, and New York.
Buccellati is known for the elaborate gemstone jewelry designs that are very reminiscent of the Old Hollywood and the Art Nouveau eras. And most of the jewelry designs feature insect and animal forms like dragonflies and peacocks made of pearls. The Buccellati jewelry collections are in many exhibitions around the world, and they are often in auctions.
Their most recent collection is known as the Art in Gold, Silver, & Gems, and you can find it exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of National History in 2000. There is also the 2010 Gemstone Cocktail Rings exhibition that often travels around the globe, all year round.
10.Christian Dior
This is the other popular jewelry designer, although the brand is now known to the world as the leading French luxury goods brand.
Dior (Christian Dior) jewelry is unique, glamorous, and colorful, and these pieces of jewelry were ideally made to complement the rest of the luxury goods by Dior.
Overall, Dior is known for jewelry that puts a nice, feminine spin on the traditionally masculine jewelry designs. The brand is also known for the rose-themed gemstone pieces of jewelry, designs that were inspired by Christian Dior’s love for roses.
Conclusion
There are numerous other world-famous jewelry designers, and these are just some of the famous ones. The others include David Yurman, Faberge, Chanel, H. Stern, Hermes, Tiffany, Gigi Clozeau, Alessandra Dona, Ilgiz Fazulyanov, Fawaz Gruosi, Monique Péan, Marco Bicego, Alexander Calder, Paul Flato, and Boucheron; just to name a few.
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Stephanie is a jewelry lover when she was a teenager. Her major was fashion design when she was in college. She is a jewelry designer at SOQ Jewelry and other design companies. Now she is also a writer for our website. She writes a lot of designs&brands posts with very actionable tips.