Alix Pellerin : So tell me Virginie, you asked me to organize this interview in order for your fans to get to know you better.

Virginie : That’s right, through my website some of the netsurfers did ask me who I was, and about my career. A biography is available on the Fan’s Facebook pages of Virginie Carpentier-Paris and Virginie Carpentier New York. (Click on the Facebook link and you ll know everything about my life and my craft.) You can’t escape being on the web nowdays.

Alix : You’re absolutly right, you don’t even exist otherwise.

Virginie : « I wanted to introduice you to the web’s fans, I love the way you write your short and humorous annotations and as well « The creator’s tips ».

Alix : Well, this type of writing is very amusing and this gave you the idea to make me write a serial and post it every thursdays on your blog page.
First I though it was so exiting, but then I had the writer’s block. I had to find a framework. I panicked a bit. Then the inspiration came out, and needed to be revealed. It took some time to start writing but I gave you my written materials for the next six mouths. So we ll see if my fans become your fans too.
Let’s get back to you, you mentioned that your customers, your fans were asking about the origin of your inspiration, your creation.
For instance, the Champ line, how did you come up with such an obvious idea, and nobody else before you though about it. Except some golden champagne caps pendants.
What I like in your work it s this poetic mind you put into it. The way you choose the collections names it’s so wit and poetic.

Virginie : Yes, you’re the one who mentioned it first, you wrote « Wit Jewels ». Concerning the Champ line, I don’t call it Champagne because it’ s a protected designation. Actually when I was a child during Sunday lunches at home with the all family, it was always some Champagne wine at the table. I used to collect the metal caps and rims to make little chairs and tables for lilliputian people, or I would use the caps and rims to make a ring as big as « 50 cent » on the indexfinger. And I just love Champagne, it such a festive wine not just like any junk drink.

Alix : So you could transpose your artistic and creative sens into your craft. I’d like to know the evolution of the creation of Robert and Sonia, personally I love the name and the collection..

Virginie : As you know I still have some recollections of my Art history classes… Sonia and Robert Delaunay impressed me a lot by their sense of colors, their geometric compositions, and the Art movement called Orphism. This collection is a way to pay tribute to their creativity and as well to the couple they were making. A couple living in constant exchanges in their relationships. It s a rare case of famous artist couple that didn’t tear each other apart or canceled out the other’s ego.

Alix : I like a lot as well, the lines of the Spoutnick collection. This collection reflects well your way of thinking things, in a very poetic sense.

Virginie : Yes, those lines match with my personality. I like to play with things, change their purpose, think them differently, view them in an other angle and transform them. I am very much inspired by what’s going on in the world. When the Subprime crises exploded, anxiousness and gloom arised in people’s mind. Now we are living in the time of crisis and we must show some courage to overcome it. At that time I created the Pills collection. I started with a pendant representing a blister strip with those words written on it « smile pill ». It was an allusion, in the sens that we had to swallow the pill, but at the same time stay positive and keep on smiling. From my own experience, I can say that if one can accept the problem one’s facing, then can start the rebuilding phase, and we can finally comprehend it. A positive attitude is one of the best tool to find courage. I better stop here my philosophical digression. Going back to the « smile pill » I made it as a chain bracelet and as a ring. The « guilloché » has the shape of a blister of a paracetamol pill box. Also I love pearls, it has such soft and feminine aspect. At the same time I wanted to give to the pearls a contemporary touch reflecting today s women, active and feminine without the classical bourgeoise cliché, the kind of middle class women you find in Claude Chabrol’s movies. I think I carried out this collection successfully in this way because many women love it.

Alix : You create jewels for women but as well for men and children.

Virginie : Yes, because I like male-female parity. Men are often forgotten, they don’t have much choices on the jewel market : it s either classical or boor. If the designers could make some jewels a little more refined with a humoristic touch, things will change. Often men’s jewels turn very classical because they can’t find an appropriate style. It’s the same with clothes. Someone like Paul Smith understood this point very well and his great success shows it.

Alix : Now that you mentioning it, I can see the Bristish touch in your work too. And what about the children, why did you include them in your collection ?

Virginie : Very simply remembering my own childhood. When we are little, we want to become a grow up quickly. I didn’t want to make jewels for cute little girls or women jewels made at little girls size. Therefore I wanted to create jewels that be fit for all ages. Those jewels could be like lucky charms of childhood memories, a Proust’s madeleine cake. During some private sales, a grandmother bought for her granddaughter an Omega necklace. The pendant was a small flower with a heart made of red agate. And for herself an Omega necklace with a small flower pendant and in its heart a fresh water pearl. It gave her classical pearl necklace a refreshing touch. When I saw the two of them putting on their necklaces, they were showing a smile of complicity and joy. The gift was more in the act of sharing than in the act of shopping an object. Though those lines designed for women, men and children, all genders and ages can share this kind of special moments.

Alix : You are on the point to start a new trend of « slow marketing ».

Virginie : Yes, especially with your written serials, many people will become addicts, and we ‘ll create a big community of fans.

Alix : To offer pleasure to people, that’s a simple but great idea. Some new way of sponsoring, simple and cheap. As an old economy student you are so artistic and creative.

N.B Alix Pellerin is the artist name of the author of the serials. Alix is working for a big communications group. You can read her funny and smart serials on the website of Virginie Carpentier.