The press and Verney Paris
Vogue Paris
In Place Vendôme, jeweler Michel Ermelin recaptures the verve of the great creators of the Parisian haute tradition. [...]
The artistic value of an object is closely linked to the recognition of the originality of its signature. Gauguin, Picasso, and Matisse will always be reliable choices because they are unique and instantly recognizable; similarly, jewelry signed by Verney will be precious relics of their time for future collectors. These are works of art, highly original in both their purely aesthetic creation and their technical execution.
Michel Ermelin belongs to the great lineage of jewelers who believe in creating, innovating, and always pushing boundaries. His jewelry is modern and imaginative; it elevates traditional forms, breathing new life into them: retinal works of geometric spirit, transformable reliefs, simple yet captivating plays of gemstone colors which, mysteriously orchestrated in supple and pure movements, perfectly express the 20th-century woman. [...]
New volumes with sapphire, emerald, ruby, diamond sparkles… rotate on themselves allowing the coquettishness of "changing" without changing the set.
Financial Times How To Spend It
"Codes that have been broken by women…"
Michel Ermelin, designer and president of Verney, the luxurious but discreet Parisian jeweler, has taken daytime wear to a new level by designing what he calls: "a necklace for jogging".
Running at lunchtime while wearing Easy River, a flowing stream of slide-cut rough diamonds, dangled with a succulent 3.5-carat drop pendant, may be an incredible step for many, but, ladies, that's because we're worth it.
Precious pearls bring a new dimension, fluidity, and informality to fine jewelry. Michel Ermelin, designer, creator, and owner of Verney Paris, which produces some of the most exquisite pearl jewelry around, loves to create a "grand spectacle" with hundreds of carats of emerald, sapphire, or ruby pearls, adding that "pearls are the essence of classic, but they are fun, they have humor and movement. They are alive."
Solitaire Magazine Hong Kong
With a passion for fine gemstones and a penchant for rigid simplicity, Parisian designer Michel Ermelin has created what he describes as the new classicism of high jewelry, unique pieces that have helped redefine the French boundaries of jewelry design.
Created under the Verney brand, which he launched in 1980 in Place Vendôme, Michel won his design battle to place precious stones at the heart of each piece of jewelry. When he decided to use black gold to make the gold disappear and allow the stones to shine, this decision was controversial 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.
Although simplicity is her mantra, the techniques used to achieve it are extremely complex, often incorporating delightful elements of surprise, an engineering lightness, and exquisite movement. Among her favorites is a brooch of delicately carved jade leaves contrasted with a slender black gold stem inlaid with emerald highlights.
Michel is pleased that his pieces encourage his clients to create an image that is entirely their own. "Women of the 21st century want to 'invent' their look, creating their image with carefully selected accessories. We embrace this spirit and create jewelry just for them."
Luxury Magazine
Place Vendôme is a legendary address in the world of jewelry, home to both historic houses (Chaumet at number 12, Cartier at 23, Boucheron at 26…) and the next generation of talent. Even the ultra-secretive JAR is known to operate from a workshop at number 7. And at 24 Place Vendôme, a discreet but highly creative house, Michel Ermelin works under the name Verney.
Founded in the 1980s, Verney is credited with inventing the "classic jewelry" style, a reference to the new French classicism in jewelry design. It also pioneered the use of black gold in its signature Triad ring. And today, it continues to create extraordinary, albeit discreet, "legacies of the future."
Known for his technical prowess (Verney's designs in particular are feats of ingenuity), Ermelin might be considered a jeweler's jeweler were it not for his intimate understanding of the needs of the modern jewelry buyer. The idea that jewelry should be easy to wear is central to Verney's vision. "I always wanted to create a diamond necklace that could be worn every day for every occasion. You could even go for a run wearing it."
By combining rich colors with organic forms, Verney continues in the pioneering spirit of influential jewelers René Boivin and Suzanne Belperron. His discerning clientele attests to this. This, and the fact that, like the work of these celebrated names, modern women who buy from Ermelin actually wear his jewelry. He simply puts it: "They are more often carried on the hand than hidden away in a safe."
Marc Cholodenko on Michel Ermelin for Vogue
I'd been warned: be careful, Michel Ermelin does everything he can to avoid talking about himself. It's true that when you're face to face with this handsome, loquacious, and cultured fellow, you're more inclined to chat about anything and everything. After a few minutes under his spell, listening to him speak of the Place Vendôme as if it were a jewel – emerald column, sapphire sky, and ivory facades – I snapped out of it.
He arrived in London to follow a young woman whose parents wanted to keep her away from him (yes, young men, that's how it was still 15 years ago!) and set up Ermeline Jewellery in Beauchamp Place (pronounced Beecham) where he made bracelets in ivory, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell. [...] It was with a mutual friend that he established Poiray on Rue de la Paix in 1975 with twenty thousand francs they had borrowed.
After Poiray, Verney. His creations are timeless. Without a doubt, Ermelin knows how to give his jewelry that life that only true artists have the gift of instilling: an existence that belongs neither to the past nor to the future, but to the present, a present that only their talent is capable of eternalizing.
These jewels are from today, but this today could have been ten thousand years ago and wouldn't have changed an hour after another ten thousand years have passed. He begins to speak: "You see, this was a necklace made with two hundred and twenty one-and-a-half-carat emeralds, cut in a trapezoidal shape; since it's open and a part had to pivot so it could be worn around the neck, the opening mechanism was hidden inside the stones to achieve the simplest possible line. This was a clock with an invisible movement, eighty centimeters high, made of crystal, steel, and rubies. It took three years to make. There isn't one taller. [...] This was a reversible necklace, for periods of austerity. On one side, blue sapphires and emeralds, on the other, yellow sapphires and black mother-of-pearl." I ask him why he speaks of his jewelry in the past tense. "It's because they've been sold. And all my jewelry pieces are unique."
It's no wonder that early collectors (New York, Tokyo) meticulously track all his creations. He signs his aphorisms on art as a "relatively anonymous 20th-century figure."
Anonymous, that's what he says. Those who love real jewelry have known Ermelin for a long time and know that thanks to him, since last September, the timeless spirit of the greats, the Toussaints and the Cartiers that he likes to mention, has once again taken root, under the Verney banner, in Place Vendôme.