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Bracelet by Taher Chemirik, at Naila de Monbrison

Along with Cartier, Boucheron and the other world-renowned luxury jewelers on Place Vendôme, Paris is also home to a host of sparklingly original independent jewelers and designers. 

Tucked away in a tranquil street behind the Assemblée Nationale, Naïla de Monbrison's gallery is the kind of insider address the fashion elite exchange in secret.

The Egyptian-born Naïla came to Paris to study international relations at Paris's famed Institut d'Etudes Politiques, but shortly after graduation she married renowned Parisian primitive art dealer Marc de Monbrison.

Inspired by an exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art tracing the affinities between primitive and contemporary art, Naïla opened a gallery showcasing limited-edition and unique jewelry by contemporary artists and sculptors alongside ethnic works.

Over the past twenty years the committed globetrotter and passionate defender of the avant-garde has devoted herself to "discovering, promoting and following the work of each of my designers over time". Naïla alternates themed collective shows with exhibits by individual designers.

Following a stunning exhibition by Taher Chemirik, whose asymmetric link necklaces, dramatic gold and ebony armbands and voluminous rings received massive press coverage, this month the gallery spotlights jewelry by Christiane Billet, a talented French sculptor who trained at the Beaux Arts in Paris and has created jewelry for the haute couture collections of Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Lacroix.

Billet's extraordinary bronze art brut brooches and chokers appear to have been rusted by the waves or etched by the passage of time-exceptional jewelry aimed at women who believe a piece of jewelry should be a work of art.

More at: http://tinyurl.com/ya2d6d3