LA TONKINOISE À PARIS is a neo-vintage jewelry brand. Its creator, a graduate of the Duperré School of Applied Arts in Paris, started her career as the main assistant to ISABEL MARANT in 1991. After working at LANVIN and BABYLONE, she joined the style office of the ready-to-wear brand KOOKAÏ for 10 years, creating accessories made through large imports.

The essence of her brand is to reconnect with artisanal production, made in France, the old-fashioned way. Each model is a unique piece, composed of both antique jewelry and recently recycled elements. The aim is to create, with a sustainable perspective, using pearls, brooches, watches, and earrings sourced from flea markets. Blending the patina of recovered jewelry, sometimes damaged by time, with the delicacy of glass or semi-precious stones, the creator enjoys giving a second life to her finds, regardless of their origins or eras.

The unique style of LA TONKINOISE À PARIS is this eclectic assembly, this little jumble of flea market items with poetic and offbeat associations. Each composition is carefully studied, reworked, and assembled by hand in her workshop in the 11th arrondissement. The handmade universe is both glamorous and scruffy, artisanal, luxurious and raw, poetic and rock… Created in November 2008, the brand was quickly noticed and distributed at BON MARCHÉ and then at GALERIES LAFAYETTES. Following a philosophy of “non-mass production,” it is now primarily distributed through the Parisian boutique opened in 2015.

The jewelry has been labeled since 2017 as “FABRICATED IN PARIS” by the City of Paris, in the tradition of the local workshops that have always existed in the eastern part of Paris. Its name, like the song that inspires it, “LA PETITE TONKINOISE,” performed in the 1920s by JOSÉPHINE BAKER and MISTINGUETTE, evokes a soft femininity mixed with Parisian bravado.

All material (photos, texts, etc.) belongs to the shop. monbendo.fr holds no rights regarding them.