“Traditionally at Cartier we believe that one strength of a winning design is its capacity to change over time,” once said Pierre Rainero, Director of Image, Style and Heritage for Maison Cartier. Truthful to this vision, the house is unveiling its new Juste un Clou and Ecrou collections at Salone Del Mobile, adding a sparkling touch to the much-awaited fair.
Azyaamode had the opportunity to sit with Rainero and discuss his career at Cartier, the new collections and the house’s true vision for style.
What can you tell us about your journey at Cartier?
I didn’t start my career at Cartier in the creation department. I used to work in an American communications agency and then, the House proposed to me to handle its international advertising. What I liked about it is its strong identity and the fact of communicating with many extremely different cultures because Cartier was one of the very few houses to have this international image. I found this very interesting and challenging. What makes my career special is that I have gone through many stages and I didn’t start in the creation department to end up here. So I am really grateful for my experience, as I have learned about the Maison’s commercial aspect in foreign countries and understood the cultural differences. I also had the opportunity to learn that design calls for a very strong artistic dimension – the pieces should be beautiful and catch the attention while they are perfectly in line with a certain lifestyle.
How would you describe Middle Eastern women’s relationship with jewelry?
Women in the Middle East do not only consider jewelry a way to pack a statement, but also a life pleasure. Socially speaking, jewelry in the occident was absolutely linked to the expression of one’s social status. This in fact is what we call ceremonial jewelry. This notion still exists but people don’t speak about it as much as they did before. The fact of expressing the social status through jewelry to the others or to one’s self has become a reality. It’s a notion of self-confidence and it still exists abundantly everywhere, and the Middle East is no exception.
We are here today to celebrate the launch of the new Juste un Clou collection. How is this collection linked to the house’s DNA and to the heritage of this collection that dates back to the 1970s?
What interests us when we present a jewelry piece is not only its beauty, but also being relevant in this era. This piece has found its place on the fingers and the wrists of our clientele today and they will not only have the pleasure to buy it because it’s beautiful, but also because they have the desire to wear it – which is an embodiment of their modern state of mind. Therefore, we have focused on this aspect and the fact that this piece was created in the 1970s will have no bearing on its success today.
Tell us about the history of this collection and the alterations that it has witnessed since its launch in the 1970s up until now.
This collection was launched in 1969. With the launch of the Love de Cartier bracelet, we stopped commercializing it for a while. A few years ago, we thought that this piece was extraordinary and here we are back in the spirit of today. Today, we are not only offering the bracelet, but also many variations. We have the collar and the thicker bracelet.
Concerning the alterations that the Juste un Clou has witnessed, the head of the nail was square-shaped at the beginning of the 20th Century and so was the tip of the bracelet.
How does this collection set you apart in terms of inspiration?
We have found inspiration in many objects from everyday life. What set us apart are the themes of inspiration, like architecture and decorative arts in general, not only the jewelry. We also get inspired by other cultures and civilizations, and more precisely by their architecture, their artifacts.
Between Ecrou and Juste un Clou, which collection do you think is more successful?
Juste un Clou is a complete jewelry line, including the rings, the bracelets and the collar, so it will definitely be a success. And Ecrou today is only a bracelet, but we at Cartier make sure to give justice to every piece and we always preserve the force of the piece by developing it.
How do you describe the woman or the man who wears Cartier?
It’s so hard to describe them, because our way in creating and working is really all about the piece. We work on its beauty and naturally, we refuse to set a lifestyle that goes with it. In other terms, we think that the client has the liberty to live with our creation as he or she wants. When we launch new creations, we never think about the character of the person who will wear it. That said, we feel that the women and men who wear Cartier are free-spirited, because choosing to wear a Cartier jewelry piece and adopting the remarkable style of the house requires a certain spiritual maturity.
What are the design codes on which Cartier bases its creations?
I don’t like to use the word “codes” but I would rather say communication. We aim through our communication at promoting people’s knowledge of our designs. When it comes to the creative process, we don’t speak about codes; we speak about style and we consider it a living language. When we speak about language, we speak about grammar in reference to the permanent design elements and about the aesthetic vocabulary, which allows us to describe the richness. Since the vocabulary of a living language is in permanent evolution, it witnesses the rise of new words. This is the advantage of speaking about language rather than about codes.
What is the relation between Cartier and the Middle East?
Historically, Jacques Cartier travelled to the Middle East in 1911 and stopped by Dubai in his quest for pearls.
As for myself, during my travels to the Middle East, I learned a lot of things about the people that I met in different countries, not only in the Gulf, because we exist there thanks to the significance of our creations. We appreciate our Middle Eastern customers who push us to offer more and love to stand out by wearing our pieces.
Mirella Haddad
