Philippe Mascarelli : 3D to the pearl's aid

The Monegasque company Misaki has injected fresh blood in the image of pearl jewels, helped by new technologies and its designer's creative talents. Portrait of an unrestrained imaginative person.

In 1999, when Philippe Mascarelli is hired by Erick Van de Fonteyn, the boss of the Monegasque company Misaki, his mission is to lift the company's collections and to make young swingers wear pearl jewels which were reserved for more classical customers until then. He managed to do so brilliantly. Today, the brand is very famous : it is sold in 300 shops all over the world and proposed during flights of around fifty airline companies...Designer in spite of himselfHowever, Philippe Mascarelli is not a traditional jeweller. He comes from the advertisement and design universe. Still, his creative talents have made him become 'designer-jeweller' in spite of himself. In the same time as a master's degree in biochemistry and postgraduate studies in company management, the young man, who has planned to go to the business world at that time, has acquired strong competences in graphic arts.'At that precise moment, I didn't think about making a career in the artistic world. I'd rather say I have always been very interested in everything linked to art. Even if I have studied so-called traditional subjects, I have always kept on practicing design and I've been taught computer-aided publishing by myself'.Still, Philippe Mascarelli begins his professional career in one the biggest adevertisng agency of Nice : 'The Ramel agency. I've spent ten years there. Keen on new technologies, I've created my creation office. Then, we were at the very beginning of computer-aided publishing and Ramel was publishing its leaflets by itself. As time goes by, I've managed to impose Internet.'In 1999, Philippe Mascarelli who, in his own words, 'wished to change air', leaved Ramel for /www.misaki.com">Misakiwhich had just set up at the Gildo Pastor Center, in the Fontvieille neighbourhood in the Principality of Monaco.To brush away the cobwebs from jewelleryThe company has made the pearl its hobby-horse. It wants to make young people get interested in it. An ambitious bet, since the image of the pearl has a strong out-of-date connotation. Furthermore, pearl jewels are often very expensive. Thus, young people turn to other gems.Hence the strategy set up by Misaki which has tried to focus on the their models' design and on their prices. A new technique has been invented : the one of the 'reconstitution pearl'. We make a mother of pearl coating from the core. The process is craft but is faster than a cultured pearl which takes month to shape. As a consequence, the cost is cheaper : 'you have to know that a Misaki's pearl watch costs 2.000 francs as against 8.000 to 10.000 francs at a traditional jeweller's.'Philippe Mascarelli, whose mission was to create a new jewel range, has begun to attend every international fashion show in order to be aware of new tendencies. 'Europe dictates fashion. The tendency is to refined and designed forms. We are going towards a minimalism while keeping a certain 'Latin emotion'. So, I have built my collection 2000 from the design spirit.With no complex at all about the lack of knowledge in jewellery, he offers audacious forms 'that a jeweller could not even dare to design', by marrying pearl with Plexiglas or with pieces of enamel produced in the Murano's workshops.To re-examine the creation techniquesThis innovation trend hits not only jewels, but also creation techniques which have been re-examined by computer. The stereolithography or the creation of 3D jewels 'allows him to visualize the created object under all its faces. Even better : thanks to Amapiand Ray Dream Designerapplication programs, the designed jewel can be immediately made in prototype. It is completely realizable, because we have a special printers which makes a 'jewel model' in resin pulp.'The other innovation concerns the working methods. 'Via the Net, we are testing our jewel projects which are accepted or refused by the audience, which allows us to begin the production or not. We constantly create because we want to be close to the fashion evolution'.Tireless, Philippe Mascarelli goes further. He has started a supplementary task. Misaki wants now to open shops in big capitals all over the world. And naturally, Philippe is in charge of creating the design and the organization. A new challenge for this unrestrained imaginative man...