In 1936, Argentinian-born Fred Samuel opened the doors to a jewellery house unlike any other in Paris. At just 28, this visionary from a family of gemstone dealers brought a fresh, modern perspective to jewellery at the time—one that was contemporary, vibrant, and rooted in everyday elegance.
Embracing coloured stones and cultured pearls with avant-garde flair, Samuel championed a style defined by movement, versatility, and luminous beauty. His creations shimmered with exuberance, laying the foundation for a maison that would become known around the world as The Sunshine Jeweler.
Nearly 90 years on, Fred celebrates its founder’s enduring legacy with 19 new high jewellery creations across two evocative chapters. Together, they are love letters to the maison’s storied past, while illuminating its ever-evolving spirit of innovation and unbridled joy.
CHAPTER 1: 1936
Named 1936, the first chapter pays homage to the year Fred was established and the creative fervour of its founder. Samuel’s childhood under the Argentine sun sparked a lifelong fascination with light and colour—a passion further honed through his training with the Worms Brothers, one of Paris’s foremost dealers in gemstones and fine pearls.
This stunning collection draws inspiration from the architectural elegance of the era, featuring strong Art Deco influences and the now-iconic arch motif seen at the maison’s first boutique on 6 Rue Royale. Reimagined in graphic, fluid forms, this signature element serves as a recurring design language throughout the collection.
At the heart of 1936 is a trio of gemstone suites featuring Colombian emeralds, Sri Lankan sapphires, and Mozambique rubies, alongside the cultured pearls Samuel helped bring into vogue. The emerald set showcases stones from the legendary Muzo mines, including a luminous 4-ct gem that anchors a necklace of white gold arches and diamonds. A second emerald of similar weight is held in a solitaire-style claw setting on a ring, its band sculpted with repeating arches. This architectural detail is echoed in a striking pair of earrings, with all three pieces playing with symmetry and negative space to highlight the emeralds’ vivid green brilliance.
Next, the sapphire parure is anchored by a 7.13-ct cushion-cut royal blue Sri Lankan sapphire set at the centre of a white gold and diamond necklace. Here, Fred reinterprets its signature arch as an elegant vault, framing a cascade of diamonds in a delicate interplay of grain-set and claw-set stones. This graceful silhouette owes its elegance to an articulated, flowing structure that moves with the body. The design continues across a pair of earrings set with two rich blue sapphires, and a ring crowned with a deep-blue gem of over 6ct, all crafted to shimmer with every gesture.
The ruby suite turns up the heat with rich pigeon blood stones framed by dynamic diamond arches. A supple choker, along with matching earrings and a ring centred on oval-cut rubies of up to 3ct, adds a fiery elegance. Finally, the 1936 chapter quietly honours Samuel’s affinity for cultured pearls. A long sautoir of delicate pink Akoya pearls is punctuated with diamond-set arches, capturing Fred’s signature blend of refinement and modernity.
CHAPTER 2: SOLEIL D’OR SUNRISE
While 1936 is an ode to the past, Soleil d’Or Sunrise continues the maison’s most radiant story. In 1977, it acquired an extraordinary yellow diamond of over 100ct, its vivid hue reminiscent of the sun itself. Christened Soleil d’Or, the stone came to symbolise Samuel’s vision of luminous, joy-filled jewellery.
After returning to the maison’s heritage collection in 2021, this legendary gem now inspires a new chapter—one that reinterprets high jewellery through the lens of light and fluidity. The nine pieces of this second chapter capture the poetry of light in motion. Each creation plays with reflections that shift gently with every movement of its wearer, casting a subtle, sun-kissed shimmer across the skin.
At the heart of the collection is a bib-style necklace centred around a 2-ct fancy intense yellow diamond, surrounded by rays of white and yellow diamonds arranged like radiant sunbeams. Playing on the radiance of grain-set yellow stones and claw-set white diamonds, the creation echoes the warmth and brilliance of the legendary Soleil d’Or stone.
Versatility is a defining element of this collection, echoing Samuel’s enduring passion for transformable jewellery—now a hallmark of the maison’s savoir-faire. The dazzling brilliance of the sun at its zenith is captured across a suite comprising a necklace, transformable earrings, and ring, all adorned with white diamond pavé that recreates a radiant, draped effect.
Each piece boasts a single white diamond in its centre that mirrors the bold silhouette of a voluminous ball ring. A matching brooch completes this ultra-precious set with a touch of elegance. As a poetic tribute to the sun’s daily presence, a short necklace reimagines the motif in a refined expression of high jewellery for everyday sophistication.
