“I would love to be seen as an artist who creates sculptures to be worn,” states luxury diamond jewelry designer Lorenz Bäumer, the creator behind Louis Vuitton fine jewelry. In fact, he has been the creator of many fine jewelry pieces for other eminent names such as Chanel, Guerlain and Baccarat. These notable houses would only enlist a most proficient jeweler to uphold their reputation, bien s?r! But Lorenz Bäumer has his own great name and salon also, where he described to me in a recent interview the commonality he shares with Louis Vuitton, his most poetically expressed inspirations, and the one “erotic object” he finds amusing.

Located on the prestigious Place Vendôme, Paris, Bäumer chose this location for his jewelry salon “because Paris is one of the only cities where exceptional jewelry can be made.” He elaborates, “Here are the greatest artisans, whose savoir-faire is transmitted from generation to generation, and the latest techniques are the fruit of an ancestral culture.” Bäumer is a worldly man, a well-traveled and charismatic gentleman, who poetically speaks as if in serenade. “I have always loved jewelry,” he begins, “it is the heart of life, at the crossroads of art and technique, of desire and pleasure.” "Go on," I tell him, so as not to deter him from thought, “All the elements, even those that are hardly visible or deliberately hidden, are worked to the point of obsession,” he continues.