Laura Gallon’s story of how she became a jewelry designer reads like a great detective novel: lost histories and shocking discoveries as well as an overwhelming desire to set things right and create a dynasty of her own.
Her mystery-solving skills came into play when her father gave Gallon a pair of fan-shape diamond-and-platinum earrings that his grandfather had made. Georges Gallon had made the earrings in the 1920s as a gift to his wife. To say Gallon was smitten with this gift and its provenance is an understatement.
Gallon probed deeper. It turns out Georges Gallon was a renowned jeweler in Orléans, a city two hours south of Paris. Gallon’s father was born in the jewelry workshop—this was back in the days when home births were more common, Gallon says. Georges and his wife raised Gallon’s father, so his giving these earrings to her was a great gift, she says.
“Holding the earrings in my hands and seeing how beautiful they were, I realized the magnitude of my family’s jewelry heritage. That’s when I decided to become a gemologist and to revive the family business,” Gallon says.
Interestingly, the founder of Laura Gallon Joaillerie had started down the path toward jewelry as she was always interested in the luxury world—although there were times when the two didn’t always get along. For example, Gallon’s first “real” job was as a sales assistant at Eres, a luxury swimwear company owned by Chanel. Gallon ended up getting fired after just two weeks.
“I loved getting to know the clients that were coming into the store and wasn’t ‘fast enough’ to get things from the stock in the back, so we parted ways,” Gallon says. “That issue proved to be a strength later on as the relationships I build with my clients today are something that people really enjoy and value.”
Let’s start from the beginning. Gallon was an only child raised just outside Paris in a village called Marnes-la-Coquette. Her father was a dental surgeon, and her mother was a flight attendant on the Concorde. They met on a plane, of course. The family traveled frequently, including vacations to the United States.
Gallon went to the American School of Paris and then to the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel, an international school in Paris. She received an international baccalaureate and went on to get a bachelor’s degree in communications and marketing from the American University of Paris.
After a few successful luxury fashion house internships, Gallon says she decided to study fashion marketing and attended Parsons School of Design in New York. She graduated with an associate’s degree in 2014.
Gallon became a marketing assistant at Net-a-Porter, the first online luxury retailer, but had to return to France after a year because of a visa issue. In 2015, she became a digital marketing coordinator for Oetker Collection, a group of luxury hotels. Seeking more creativity in her daily work, she moved on to an events company, but she still felt something was missing.
She found the missing piece in those family earrings. Gallon became a jewelry detective, studying the earrings her great-grandfather had made. His business had faded away as no one wanted to take over the legacy he had created. Gallon says she had to change that.
“My great-grandparents created pieces in the 1920s and 1930s that are still being worn today. They didn’t go out of style. They look like they could have been bought yesterday,” Gallon says. “That allows them to be passed down from generation to generation, and I really like that idea of transmission. That’s what I want to do with the jewelry I create.”
She went to the GIA, got her gemologist certification, and took her first jewelry job for a workshop in Los Angeles. Then the pandemic hit. With time on her hands, Gallon started sketching her own ideas. Gallon started her first jewelry company in 2020, but she rebranded it in 2022 as Laura Gallon Joaillerie.
The brand’s first collection, Alice, is named for Gallon’s great-grandmother. She based the collection on those fan-shape diamond earrings that Georges gave to his beloved in 1920.
These days, she travels between France, the United States, and Mexico. Her brand is taking off as more people discover it—and as she discovers more of her family history. Her new collection, Dynasty, will come out later in 2024, she says.
“It’s inspired by a breathtaking piece made by my great-grandfather that we’ve managed to acquire at auction last year,” Gallon says. “This will be my best work yet, and I cannot wait to share it.”
Top: Laura Gallon is the founder of a jewelry brand inspired by the work of her great-grandfather Georges Gallon, who was a jeweler more than a century ago (photos courtesy of Laura Gallon Joaillerie).
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