Precious Jewels from Bonanza Paris
Bonanza Paris, the beautiful and thoughtful jewellery brand was set up by two friends Justine Valençon and Chloe Bechini, and what gorgeous jewellery they produce. As for the materials, think beachy pearls and an abundance of gold in a range of necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings and the cutest hair slides (they feature mini shells, perfect for summer). Fresh from the debut of their new collection called, ‘Bord de Mer’ we talk to both women about the rise of their jewellery brand that they founded just last year.
Tell us about how you started in the industry?
We started it with intuition and determination! We always had this desire to start the brand and when we met for the first time a connection was made between us and materialized in the creation of Bonanza Paris in March 2018.
Jewels are for us a timeless accessory that we wanted to pass down from generation to generation as the jewels of our mothers and grandmothers also inspire us on a daily basis. It was a way to share our story and our passions through an accessory that is very dear to us. This relation to time and this idea of timelessness totally match to our DNA, a jewel should be precious and should have a story as we want to cherish it our whole life in order to be confident and magnify the feminine beauty day after day.
What is it about jewellery that you pulls you in?
The ostentatious of the jewels that we find in the jewelry boxes of our grandmothers. We have a weakness for vintage textured jewelry, gold and with precious stones that we can find in Paris flea markets.
Which is your favourite piece from the collection, past or present?
The Marinha earrings. Inspired by the casualness of the oceans and the twinkling sunset on the waves of the French Riviera, they bring character and presence to your face. They are a timeless piece for Bonanza Paris.
What’s the design journey for you?
We aspire to do a new way of doing business, we want to make Bonanza Paris a responsible brand. This begins with a need for trust in our workshop. That’s why we took the time to choose it so that it also shares our commitments: ecology, respect, and naturalness.
Being in this movement to present quality and meaningful creations we attach great importance to making very small collections. So that we can focus and challenge each other on each creation. The same goes for the production of our pieces. We produce only small quantities.
All our designs are drawn by us in Paris, this part takes about two months. We then send them to our workshops in the north of France who first realize all the samples and then comes all the production. To create one collection it takes about 6 months of work.
Tell us about the materiality…
The choice of materials and textures are essential to our creative process, we prefer raw materials of golden color to keep the authenticity and beauty of it. In our next collection, we also decide to work with precious stone, we have a weak for emeralds, aquamarines, and rubies.
What do you love most about your job?
Justine: It’s amazing how many things you learn every day when you have a business. It is this thirst to constantly discover new things, this desire to be more and more challenged and this need to create that fascinates me in my job. Having a business at 25 is the best way to build and grow. In addition, I am lucky to exercise my passion on a daily basis; creation. I have always had a hidden love for creation, making my family’s Christmas gifts when I was 8, creating beaded jewellery when I was 12 and starting to draw and sew in my teenage years. Today, that’s part of my job and that’s what fills me.
Chloé: Our job today is broken down into countless trades. Every stone brought to our building brings an emotion. Everything we do every day is one more day for Bonanza, but above all for life expectancy. It is this desire to go further – to push ourselves to push our limits. We are young and very creative. We have plenty of ideas. What we need now is the time and passion to achieve them. Creation is the most attractive part because every look, every material, every place, brings us a feeling, an idea that we want to transform a precious jewel. But what I like most today is knowing that my job as a jewelry designer makes me happy!
What’s been your career highlight so far?
Every day we have moments of joy. We are still at the beginning, so each step is fascinating to us. But if we had to say one, it would be the inauguration of our corner at Printemps Haussmann. It’s a huge department store in Paris so it’s still amazing to discover our jewelry there. One of our dreams has come true.
Shop the collection now and stay connected to Bonanza Paris on Instagram
