Jewellery Designer Elie Top On His First Zara Capsule Collection  

Famed jewellery designer Elie Top, who collaborated for over a decade with Alber Elbaz and worked alongside Yves Saint Laurent, is now having his moment in the UAE. Selling his signature line in the country for the very first time and also launching a capsule costume jewellery collection with Zara

Jewellery designer Elie Top has lived a charmed life. During his illustrious career, he has collaborated with some of the biggest names in fashion. Now, the debonair moustachioed artist looks to be on the brink of having a major moment of his own, with the launch of a capsule collaboration with retailer Zara – a collection of costume jewellery inspired by the dramatic beauty of sunflowers and the endearing nature of honey bees.

Elie says he is “thrilled by the possibility of having free rein to design a collection for Zara of exceptional costume jewellery.” But actually, free rein seems to be the through line of the designer’s entire career, where one marqueename fashion designer after another has supported his unique vision.

Elie grew up in a small countryside village in the north of France, far from the bright lights of the fashion capital of the world. In the beginning, it was his stylish aunt who loved reading and archiving fashion magazines that turned his love of the architectural beauty of churches and castles towards a career in fashion. By the age of 14, he was sending unsolicited fashion sketches to the top couture houses in Paris. In fact, he learned about the existence of the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisien, where he would go on to study fashion design, thanks to Christian Lacroix.

As hard as it may be to believe, Christian actually answered teenage Elie’s letter personally, and suggested a number of schools that he should apply to. “It was super kind of him to take the time to answer and it really helped me,” recounts Elie, adding that years later during his studies, he did a two-month internship at Christian’s couture house. But Elie never actually told the designer that he was the teenager who he had corresponded with and advised, all those years before. It’s these kinds of stories peppering Elie’s career that make it easy to believe that the jewellery designer was born under a lucky star. Elie even laughingly admits his father has said as much to him, many times.

The designer’s first job right out of school was as the assistant of Yves Saint Laurent, working side-by-side with the designer. He arrived at the company just before a time
of transition at the house. When Yves was about to hand over the fashion house he founded to his hand-picked successor Alber Elbaz.

“It was Loulou de la Falaise who told me it might be better for me to go work with the new studio,” says Elie. As Alber was just starting at the house and was building his team, he tapped the 20-year-old to take charge of making jewellery pieces for his future Saint Laurent collections. “He was really the one who put me on that path,” confirms the jeweller.

Later when Alber would begin his era as the creative director at Lanvin, Elie went with him. For over a decade he was behind some of the most striking fashion accessories to grace a catwalk. His big statement necklaces, forearm-length cuffs and bold earrings made costume jewellery cool again. His pieces came to embody the epoch of Alber and Lanvin as much as the fashion designer’s famed raw-edged silk dresses, grosgrain accents and industrial zippers.

“At that time, in the beginning, costume jewellery was not that fashionable. But I was lucky because Alber was obsessed with jewellery, and with costume jewellery,” explains Elie. “We really tried to do something that had never been done before – each season. And as Alber and I got to know and trust each other he gave me more and more freedom. But as he gave me more freedom, for me, the better [my jewellery] had to be.”

“What I discovered is that I have two really opposite aesthetical obsessions,”

Elie Top

After such success with Lanvin, in 2015 Elie decided to launch his signature label, Maison Elie Top. This is where he would turn his youthful fascination with architecture, his training as a fashion designer and his love of three-dimensionality, structure and geometry into fine jewellery. His pieces walk a creative line between ancient symbols and futuristic touchpoints, often with transformable aspects to them, such as rings that pivot or earrings that spin.

“What I discovered is that I have two really opposite aesthetical obsessions. I can be super decorative and inspired by the 17th and 18th-century, and then I am very obsessed by Art Deco and industrial design,” Elie shares about his unique style of jewellery, “which I find really gives my pieces a strange sense of time, like you are never sure what era they come from.”

Recently Elie’s lucky star shined down on him once again when a buyer from That Concept Store reached out to him via Instagram, to ask the designer to join the stable of jewellery brands it carries in its store in Dubai. This marks the first time Elie’s jewellery will be sold directly in the UAE. “I was very interested in the pieces they decided to bring to Dubai, they are made from precious materials but they are more edgy, not your classic jewellery pieces,” said the designer about the selection that is now available at the store. “It looks as if their customers really like design-driven pieces.” he adds.

As he looks to the future, Elie is excited about how his creative medium has evolved using 3D printing and the trend towards the mixing of precious metals to better express the visual story he wants to tell with his jewellery. And now, between his collaboration with Zara and his debut in Dubai, it looks as if once again the stars have aligned for Elie.

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s October 2022 issue.