Interviews
26 July 2019
You see them everywhere, these multicolored necklaces stack on the necks of stylish girls? It is gachon pothier, alexandrine and florence, who after having traveled all over the planet to look for decoration, started to create jewels. Inspired and inspiring, they have only one secret: Spontaneity. discover the history and the universe of this ethnic and captivating duo who speaks exclusively to La grande boutique.
Alexandrine. I’m initially an interior decorator, I lived a long time in Morocco, I worked with my son’s father, and I wanted to do something else around decorating and Florence also came from this world. We met by a friend we have in common. The story goes like this. We launched Gachon Pothier. We were looking for beautiful decoration objects, rugs, eiderdowns … We made our first ephemeral sale in May 2011 and everything went on very quickly …
Alexandrine. It’s just the name of our two grandfathers put together.
Florence. Since we mainly offered quilts at the start, we really wanted to propose an identity that sounded like an old French “maison”. When we were little girls, I remember those thick quilts at my grandparents’ in the country, and we wanted to recreate that.
Florence. It was a big transition, which was absolutely not planned! Initially, what we liked the most was really the bed linen and carpets that we were going to hunt in Turkey. During our ephemeral sales, we sold beautiful home decor pieces, so it was relatively expensive, and on one day a friend advised us to propose more affordable accessories. At that time, we brought back jewelry from India, and we sold them in no time. Very quickly, we thought we were totally able to take a thread and pearls and make them ourselves, in any case to try. Our decoration is a bit ethnic, our jewelry was in the same vein. We really had the idea to offer the small bracelet or necklace that we bring back from a travel … especially not something sophisticated. We really really wanted to offer the accessory to add to one’s “real” jewelry.
Alexandrine. As we proposed textile for home, we thought we were going to make jewelry with some thread. We liked the idea of perpetuating this concept of the thread, we found it coherent. I have a friend who bought us our jewelry. Initially, we were stunned that someone could buy something we had made ourselves! Except that this friend worked at Maje and the boss of the brand, Judith Milgrom, loved the so-called bracelet. She asked us to make the jewels for her 180 stores! Our life changed in a minute, we became little machines, all of our girlfriends came to help us to make jewelry, it was huge …
Florence. This urged us to create other models, to reinvent ourselves. I was convinced that I wasn’t a manual person, I became a jewelry designer overnight. We had only six models, and by any means it was necessary to decline them, to find some others.
Alexandrine. From the beginning, we use the same materials. There is the gold plated, the threads of course, the semi-precious stones, but they came right after. When we went to Turkey for our carpets, there was a gentleman from Florence who inspired us. Florence had spotted a necklace that I made for her right after. It was from that moment that we began to make knots between each stone. This is a model that we always do, which is one of our best sellers for seven years!
Florence. The stones that are used for necklaces with rank of stones, we find them thanks to several suppliers and our only criterion is the crush. Without having absolute knowledge in the field of gemology, we rely on our instinct, the tone of a stone for example. We really like the colors and the vintage elements that will give a real singularity to the necklace. We let ourselves be guided, to compose is what we really want.
Alexandrine. We listen to our desires et every moment. We traveled a lot when we were doing decoration, it must have inspired us …
Florence. We really start from our own desires. Moreover, it’s the models that start from what we want that work the best. We think that if we love it, we will have more fun doing it for someone else. This gives a very personal tone to each of our pieces and I think that is what people like about Gachon Pothier. And we love to renew ourselves, we could say that we have a compulsive creation syndrom (laughs), the more we create, the more we want to create!
Florence. We like the idea of the mix. I think we should avoid total looks. We do not like things that are too much, the idea is always to break. If an element of the outfit is dressed up, keep in mind that the rest will be casual. I think that everything is a matter of proportions. I am almost obsessed with this idea of offset.
Alexandrine. I agree, it’s to put jeans with sneakers and a very golden accessory, or the opposite. It can also comes with details like “négligé” hair, or the simple fact of being almost in pajamas but with sublime necklaces. This is, for us, to be very chic.
Florence. It’s funny but I like the silhouette and look of American women… I really like the look of Lauren Hutton when she was young for example. Otherwise, I love the style of Loulou de la Falaise, I find that her extravagance is always chic.
Alexandrine. I am more inspired by people I see everyday, I can love the silhouette of a girl in the street. I really like the singularity of a look that reflects a person’s personality. Yaya, for example, I think she always has a fantastic style, there is never a total look, it’s always balanced. It is necessary to be very close to oneself, to know oneself well to look good.
Alexandrine et Florence. There are a lot! We are very proud of the “Charm” bracelet because it has evolved a lot to get where it is now. It’s perhaps the most characteristic piece of our brand. He has the knots, the thread, the stones, he has all of our techniques. Nevertheless, each necklace is a different composition, it is impossible to choose …
Florence. Basket and hats remain a sound investment … The pretty hat is sometimes not so easy to find, it can even become a goal in itself.
Alexandrine. We must be careful not to yield to local crafts you can regret once home, so I would say like Florence, a beautiful hat, it’s still useful!
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