"There is something about the necklace on the skin," Marie-Helene de Taillac said, carefully hooking one of her new pieces, a 22-karat gold and diamond lace necklace, around her neck.

The designer, who has split her time between Paris and Jaipur, India since launching her namesake line in 1996, opened a new boutique in New York. It is De Taillac's third freestanding shop and first in the United States, joining units that opened in Tokyo in 2003 and Paris in 2004.

The Botticelli necklace, which retails for $36,845, is one of de Taillac's newest creations - revealed for the first time at the new shop - along with a pair of $4,640 sequin earrings made from gold, diamonds, sapphires and spinel.

She also designed a Gold Peacock Feather group born from her daily morning swims in Jaipur, where she would see the most striking peacocks.

The group features two pairs of earrings - the smaller size contains Laguna-blue apatites and the larger pair diamonds - as well as an elaborate matching collar that retails for $44,845.

De Taillac said that she wanted the store to "mix the old and new."

The same wallpaper, a custom-made powder-blue fabric stamped with the brand's gold logo (also De Taillac's family crest) adorns the walls in the store and the company's showroom next door. It's also present in the brand's two other stores - even though each shop contains unique decor elements specific to its location.

She describes the space as almost boudoirlike, but still contemporary - and very French.

In fact, the inspiration came from two private visits to Versailles specifically. This translated to Bagues-style wall lamps with rock crystal parrots, mirrors, champagne-hued hand-knotted wool carpet and a silver ceiling.

De Taillac has worked with The Gem Palace of Jaipur since the inception of her company 17 years ago, and she is perhaps best known for her briolette necklaces fashioned from colored gemstones (a style once typically reserved for diamonds).

She maintains that every stone passes through her hands - even the 46,000 carats of aquamarines that fill the Yves Klein (French artist) glass table in the center of the showroom, which took her a year to accumulate.

The designer runs her company with the help of her three sisters, Sophie, Gabrielle and Victoire, and expresses scant desire to turn the collection into a mass brand.

She is content with her distribution - 48 doors worldwide in Asia, Europe and the US - and her own three stores.

"It's difficult to grow and maintain quality. I want a life - (and) I won't be inspired if all I do is make jewelry," she said, adding: "When you do what you're meant to do, doors open easily."

De Taillac does want to enter two new categories: jewelry timepieces and books. Although she has yet to develop the former, her first book is slated to come out later this year.

"It's not a guide, but my view on how to wear jewelry," she said. "It has some practical and (then) some crazy information. Stones have certain powers."

The New York Times

(China Daily 07/14/2013 page13)